World Match Racing Tour Sailing at the Monsoon Cup

monsoon cup

Ben Ainslie (GBR) of Team Origin and recently crowned ISAF Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio (NZL) of ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing to meet at the Monsoon Cup final

Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia (5 December 2009) – It’s been a drama filled day of match racing at the Monsoon Cup, the final event of the World Match Racing Tour, being sailed on the Pulau Duyong basin in Kuala Terengganu in Malaysia.

Earlier today 24 year old Adam Minoprio and his ETNZ BlackMatch crew of Tom Powrie, David Swete, Nick Blackman and Dan McLean won the ISAF World Match Racing Championship.

With the quarter finals concluded, this afternoon in eight to twelve knots of breeze, the semi finals of the Monsoon Cup were sailed.

In one semi final Peter Gilmour, four time Match Racing World Champion and defending Monsoon Cup champion, was up against Adam Minoprio.

The ‘wiliest of wiley’ old foxes, 49 year old Gilmour figured that after the elation and excitement of winning the World Championship, the new champions might drop the ball. Gilmour only ever needs a sniff of a chance and he is often most dangerous when he just scrapes into the quarter finals.

But Minoprio and his BlackMatch Team went into their battle against Gilmour with the adrenalin pumping. A vigorous pre-start battle ensued, but the veteran champion received a red penalty and had to take it immediately after the start.

Perhaps the new World champion was not distracted after all. Minoprio led by over a minute after the first of three laps and then sailed away with the match.

The young Kiwis had their eyes on two very prestigious trophies coming into this final World Match Racing Tour event and they already had their hands on one.

In the next match, Minoprio was given a penalty in the pre-start and then made a hash of the final approach to the finish line, with the two boats colliding. Another penalty.

Chalk this match up to Gilmour and his YANMAR Racing crew.

Now 1-1, in the third match the two crews stalled in light air on the start line. Gilmour edged out away but Minoprio, with no speed drifted into the Race Committee boat, catching on the committee boat chain. He was rewarded with a penalty, certainly not the way he wanted to start such a crucial match.

Gilmour sailed away and was well ahead at the top mark, it seemed all was lost but Minoprio ran down his rival and in the light conditions sailed around the veteran Australian.
Jaws dropped as Gilmour hit Minoprio and was penalised. An amazing ‘get out of jail’ result for the BlackMatch crew, which might turn out to be the most significant turn around in the whole event.

Minoprio, with perhaps the understatement of the regatta, said ‘We are pretty happy to take that win.’

In contrast Peter Gilmour took it on the chin. ‘I made a complete mess of the last 50 metres. A complete brain fade.’

Minoprio was now 2-1 up.

In the last and deciding race the two boats stayed very close with Minoprio pushing Gilmour to the left. Somehow Gilmour escaped and headed right. Minoprio went left and to his opponent’s amazement led the master by six boat lengths at the top mark.

Minoprio went on to win the match, signalling the exit for defending Monsoon Cup Champion Peter Gilmour and his YANMAR Racing crew; Yasuhiro Yaji, Thierry Doulliard, Cameron Dunn and Kazuhiko Sofuku.

Peter Gilmour said ‘We made blunders this afternoon. We were confused about which was the correct mark, we thought Adam had gone around the wrong one so we went round both just in case he was wrong and that would deliver us a win. But the Kiwis were right. Then Adam punched our lights out in the final race.’

‘An awesome semi final. Good one to get a win against Peter on his home turf. Now the Monsoon Cup is in our sights’ exclaimed an elated Minoprio. ‘A long day, we just had to keep pushing; we were really down in the last race, but we just keep chipping away.

Minoprio and the ETNZ BlackMatch crew are through to the final of the Monsoon Cup and are now very close to their dream of winning the ‘prestigious double.’

In the other semi final Ben Ainslie, ‘The Prince’ as PJ Montgomery calls the British triple Gold and one Silver Olympic medallist and two times Sailor of the Year sailed against Frenchman Sebastien Col and his All4One team.

In the first race Ainslie and his TeamOrigin crew of Iain Percy, Matt Cornwell, Christian Kamp and Mike Mottl won the start, they sailed into the river on the right of the course and rounded first two lengths ahead of Col and extended. But at the windward mark for the last time, Col striving for speed cut the corner and hit the mark. Match over for Col.

Ainslie won the second match handsomely and was now close to victory.

Looking up the course at Adam Minoprio sailing brilliantly on the left Ainslie headed the same way. But Col rounded just ahead, extended his lead and went onto win.

The two teams were now locked at 2-2.

It was a ‘winner take all’ final match to decide who would meet Adam Minoprio in the final of the Monsoon Cup, but in a workman like way Ainslie won the start and sailed away to victory and to a place in the final.

‘Its been a tough day, really hard to pick the current. We were reasonably consistent in finding the correct side and the boys sailed the boat fast’ said Ben Ainslie.

Sebastien Col smiled ruefully  ‘Starboard entry served them (TeamOrigin) well. We made some mistakes. Now we have the Petit Finals and we hope we have learnt from our mistakes today.’

Now Ainslie has the chance to sail away with the prestigious Monsoon Cup.

Monsoon Cup Semi Final Results
Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin vs Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/ALL4ONE 3-2
Adam Minoprio (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing vs Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 3-1

Monsoon Cup Quarter Final Results
Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin vs Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-0
Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/ALL4ONE vs Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team 3-2
Adam Minoprio (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing vs Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-0
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing vs Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 3-1

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Sailing at the Melges 32 Gold Cup

Sailing a Melges 32 Sailboat by Joy Dunigan Melges 32 Association

Day two of the 2009 Melges 32 Gold Cup saw somewhat of a shake-up in the results. Kip Meadows (Rocky Mount, N.C.) on roXanne now tops the crop by playing the day solid with a 6-3 score line to slide into the overall lead, a nice five points ahead of overnight leader Andy Lovell (New Orleans, La.) on Rougarou. Lovell holds one point over John Taylor’s (Jupiter Island, Fla.) Ninkasi now in third.

Meadows explained after racing that finding a good lane was key. “We had two good starts so we went where we wanted to. RoXanne’s tactician Andy Horton really put us in all the right places and made some really good calls.” said Kip. “Sean Clarkson is trimming the main and made it much easier to steer through some of the really weird wave angles. Communication on the part of Dave Scott has improved our downwind speed tremendously.” Meadows continued, “We’ve had a lot of fun over the last two days. Sailing is very much a team sport. When you look around at this fleet, at the owners, many of whom I have sailed against in other classes and having been a part of this class for 3 years, and the new boats that are known to be really good by reputation, and the ‘who’s who’ of sailing walking around on the docks, it’s a really nice feeling to be doing well in such strong competition. But, there’s more sailing to be done.”

Overcast skies greeted the teams, as did an approaching front that handed down some tricky conditions for two additional races. Moderate breeze and comfortable temps with a little rain on the horizon set the stage for the first gun with a course bearing of 205. It was a clean start for the twenty-three strong Melges 32 fleet. Around first was fleet newcomer Phil Lotz (Newport, R.I.) on Arethusa, followed by Joe Woods (Torquay, UK) on Red and Italy’s Lanfranco Cirillo on Fantasticaaa. Cirillo, with Daniele De Luca as tactician caught up quick downwind, as did Woods and fellow Englishman Stuart Simpson (London, UK) on Team Barbarians. Back upwind and down again for the finish, Woods managed to stay out front and win. Great strides on the final leg of the race by Marty Kullman (St. Petersburg, Fla.) on New Wave enabled them to take second, Taylor did well finishing in third. Cirillo kept in the game for fourth and Don Jesberg (Mill Valley, Calif.) on Viva rounded out the top five.

For what turned out to be the final race of the day, the breeze really softened, yet heated up once more for John Kilroy’s (San Francisco, Calif.) Samba Pa Ti Melges 32 as he led the fleet around the first mark. Trailing right behind was International Class President Jeff Ecklund (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) on STAR. Jason Carroll (New York, N.Y) on Argo, Lotz, Meadows and Alex Jackson (Riverside, Conn.) on Leenabarca followed respectively. Jackson made all the right moves back upwind, passing both Kilroy and Ecklund taking it to the finish line for the win. Kilroy settled for second, Meadows was third, Ecklund took fourth and Carroll, fifth.

Today was a very special day for the Lauderdale Yacht Club’s Junior Sailing program in which 23 of their top-notch youth sailors got the chance of a lifetime. The famous Take A Junior Sailing Day meant that a junior sailor was placed on each boat and in the direcly line of hot competition. “I liked going fast and I had a lot of fun,” said LYC’s Wade Waddell who sailed with Rougarou. “I learned that if my boat has a lot of momentum, and if a boat tacks on me, I can just head up and still have a chance for a good race.” Great smiles were greeted on the docks afterwards. Some of the juniors actually got to drive and went home with some great swag from the teams.

Tomorrow will be a pivotal day for the Melges 32 fleet with three races scheduled, a very tight points standing as we head into the final day (this isn’t over yet) and more moderate temps and breezes expected. Stay close to melges32.com as there is definitely more excitement and incredible racing to come.

Top Ten Results at the Melges 32 Gold Cup
1.) Kip Meadows, roXanne – 10-6-4-6-3 = 29
2.) Andy Lovell, Rougarou – 3-1-9-7-14 = 34
3.) John Taylor, Ninkasi – 6-3-8-3-15 = 35
4.) Jason Carroll, Argo – 4-8-12-11-5 = 40
5.) Bob Hesse, Lake Effect – 2-15-5-8-11 = 41
6.) Joe Woods, Red – 9-19-3-1-16 = 48
7.) Lanfranco Cirillo, Fantasticaaa – 16-4-2-4-22 = 48
8.) Rod Jabin, Ramrod – 1-2-16-23-7 = 49
9.) Jeff Ecklund, STAR – 8-7-15-18-4 = 52
10.) Marty Kullman, New Wave- 17-5-6-2-18 = 58

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Transat Jacques Vabre – Sailing into the Caribbean

 

Transat Jacques Vabre Sailing

Transat Jacques Vabre – Sailing into the Caribbean

It is the perfect time for the leading IMOCA Open 60’s to stretch out in near perfect downwind conditions in the Transat Jacques Vabre, maximum sail power most of the time in the pursuit of pure speed. Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier Brénac on Safran have managed to continue their gains against their near identical sister-ship Groupe Bel, the leaders gaining another three miles from their pursuers. All three leading boats are pretty much lined up nose to tail on the same gybe, firing on all cylinders towards the coast.

Certainly the passage through the West Indies was near faultless for the leading duo. If Safran co-skipper had expressed any quiet reservations yesterday morning, then 24 hours later they have proven unfounded as their margin – worth at least 3.5 hours in these conditions – remains solid.

Safran covered the best 24 hours run, making some 360 miles, largely facilitated by the

Generally stable trade winds for the moment and the lack of squalls.

The leading trio are all under big spinnakers, spearing downwind on a more releaxing set-up than the approach to the islands.

The Safran duo are opting for a route taking them closer to the coast of Venezuela, following their weather files routing which promise stronger winds there.

Mike Golding Yacht Racing followed through the same routing yesterday night and will soon break into the increasingly stable, easterly trade winds. Golding reported this morning that they passed through the islands with only a momentary slow down of about half an hour’s duration. Now with the stable winds for foreseeable future on  a 400 miles gybe he concedes that his tactical opportunities are limited.

“At the moment we are doing nicely. I think hopefully we will do better now that the breeze has evened up. It is a big gap now and so realistically we are trying to make sure we get the boat to the finish safely, and if a miracle happens we will be ready to take advantage, but at the moment the forecast is not promising anything miraculous. Which is good in a way. But it is a little bit processional. And there is not much Mich can do. Now he has gybed there is no alternative in the south, and there might have been. So to go much further sout. He has looked it more carefully and even now is taking the pain on an unfavoured gybe.” Said Golding this morning.

MGYR is now some 270 miles behind Safran still with 250 miles in hand over Foncia.

Foncia are taking some pain now on the non-making starboard gybe (effectively diverging away from the optimum course) as the option to enter in the south and go for a more southerly routing has closed for the 2007 TJV race winner, and just as Golding seems to be conceding that the die is cast, so too Desjoyeaux considers his options are now very limited.

Despite all the predictions, including Yves Parlier’s own, 1876 seem to be hanging on tenaciously to the breeze and to a solid sixth place as their nearest challengers struggled with light winds until early yesterday. The closely matched trio – Veolia Environnement, W-Hotels and Aviva are now in good trade winds breeze and perhaps we will see the gaps open more. The British duo are routing for St Lucia for their pit stop tomorrow.

Mike Golding, GBR, Mike Golding Yacht Racing reports: “We are well on our way in the Caribbean sea and picked up the breeze this morning and are tramping along now. It was pretty easy through the islands. A nice downwind passage with probably half an hour of wind shadow which sort of hooked us up slightly, nothing damaging and we did not stop very much. We have things stable, we have a system running, with the engine start batteries charging, so it looks like we are all OK now Just lots of picking up bits and pieces for the guys to fix when we get in, nothing too complicated at all, it is knowing what you are doing rather than asking us sailors to do electrics.”

“We are under big spinnaker, full main doing 17 knots downwind, some squalls coming through, not vicious and giving us a header. So it is pretty much straight down the line stuff. And we are well inside the routing, so at the moment the routing has us doing several gybes but at the moment we are pointing straight, with the wind angle five or ten degrees wrong, the islands of Puerto Calinas off Columbia are in our way, effectively a mark in the course. It is four hundred miles ahead. I can see Bel and Safran getting lifted too, I guess we will shortly too.”

“At the moment we are doing nicely. I think hopefully we will do better now that the breeze has evened up. It is a big gap now and so realistically we are trying to make sure we get the boat to the finish safely, and if a miracle happens we will be ready to take advantage, but at the moment the forecast is not promising anything miraculous. Which is good in a way. But it is a little bit processional. And there is not much Mich can do. Now he has gybed there is no alternative in the south, and there might have been. So to go much further sout. He has looked it more carefully and even now is taking the pain on an unfavoured gybe.”

Brian Thompson, GBR, Aviva reports: “We have the spinnaker up, 20 knots, just at daylight and feel like we have had a good night. We are on our way to St Lucia and everything is good on the boat. We have fixed everything but the generator and are enjoying the race against W-Hotels and Veolia and it is the closest race in the fleet. I think that we feel quite OK against them. If W-Hotels gybed they would probably be just ahead.

The wind is due to pick up to 22-23 knots close to the islands, but these are great sailing.

We have not enough power to get the weather information and to run the systems, so we do feel very compromised.”

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America’s Cup Sailing News: Valencia and Wing Sail Testing

 

BOR 90 Sailing with Wing Sail

 

America’s Cup Sailing News: Valencia and Wing Sail

Both the Alinghi and BMW Oracle America’s Cup teams have stated they are ready to hold their best-of-three multihull showdown in February in Valencia, Spain, where the Swiss team won the last edition of the Cup in 2007. However, it was still uncertain whether the 33rd America’s Cup can go ahead there as planned, or will instead take place in the Gulf emirate of Ras al-Khaimah. Ras al-Khaimah was Alinghi’s original choice for the event, but the New York court declared the venue invalid, a decision which Alinghi has appealed. “It’s Valencia in February unless the separate appeal over Ras al-Khaimah is successful,” an Oracle spokesman said on Thursday.

The court also ruled in Oracle’s favor on a number of technical issues on Thursday. “This is a victory for fair rules and common sense,” Tom Ehman, spokesman for Oracle representative, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, said in a statement.

Alinghi said in a brief statement that the court “has brought a degree more certainty to the 33rd America’s Cup today.”

Alinghi and Oracle, owned respectively by Swiss biotech billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli and American computer billionaire Larry Ellison, have been locked in a legal battle over the event for more than two years. Oracle first launched a legal challenge that accused Alinghi, which as defending champion is charged with organising the next event, of bending the rules to give it an unfair advantage. The New York Supreme Court ruled in April that the Cup should be settled by a one-on-one multihull duel between the two sides next February instead of the traditional fully-fledged regatta with several teams, and for this match the teams will be sailing multihulls.

 

BMW Oracle America's Cup Boat BOR 90

Meanwhile testing continues for the two America’s Cup boats, Alinghi’s catamaran Alinghi 5 and BMW Oracle Racing’s trimaran BOR 90, which is now sailing with a wing sail.

Earlier in the week the BMW Oracle team tested some soft sails to go with the wing sail, taking a look at code zeros and gennakers for use with the hard wing sail configuration.  Unfortunetely, the bowsprit broke, bringing the day’s testing to a close. “It’s frustrating to break gear but we would rather break it now,” Simeon said. “We are still finding the limits on this boat and breakages are part of that process. We are all learning together.”

The BMW Oracle America’s Cup team had a dockside maintenance day on Saturday, it was the first time the boat platform has returned to the dock from its mooring since the wing was installed two weeks ago. The platform was carefully guided back to the team dock with the wing lowered. Once at the dock, two cranes lifted the wing to allow for maintenance while the wing was suspended above the boat. The America’s Cup boat BOR 90 will be returning to testing on Monday.

 

Read more about the America’s Cup

 

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Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice

team origin

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice  – TEAMORIGIN lost the deciding semi final match today against the Italian Azzurra and again to the Russian Synergy team in the petit final to finish fourth in the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice.

 

Lighter conditions greeted the two semi final rivals for the deciding match of the best of three series. The British boat had the port entry today but managed to win the right hand side of the start after swapping with the Italians half way through the pre-start. TEAMORIGIN in the dominant starboard position and 150 metres to windward lead the pair up the first beat. The Azzurra team sailed fast, found better pressure to the left of the pair and started to move bow forwards on TEAMORIGIN. The Italians initiated a tacking duel and on the first approach achieved a strong leebow position requiring TEAMORIGIN to tack away. The second and third approaches were similar with, bit-by-bit, TEAMORIGIN losing the advantage. The weather mark was fast appearing in view and skipper Ben Ainslie attempted to live in the windward position for as long as possible and maybe even remain overlapped as the pair crossed the two-boatlength circle around the top mark. But the Italians luffed gently and slowed the pair down to almost stopped, and then, in a better position to leeward, accelerated quickly and rounded the first weather mark with a lead of 18 seconds.

 

The British team needed badly to do something on the run and managed to split away from the Italians, but a confident display by the Azzurra crew to stick with their side of the course and enjoy better wind saw them continue to extend.

 

The pattern remained the same for the rest of the race and in spite of every attempt the British team were unable to make any significant inroads into the Italian lead and crossed the finish line 29 seconds behind.

 

Skipper Ben Ainslie had this to say after the race: “We are obviously disappointed to lose that race. It was a close race especially up the first beat. Azzurra did a great job, and all credit to them. We fought hard all the way round but it was not to be.”

Ben continued “Reflecting on the whole regatta we have come such a long way through this event. We are disappointed not to be in the finals but we still performed really well as a team. For us it is all about building for the future so in that respect this event has been fantastic for us. We are looking forward to Auckland in March next year for sure.”

 

Team Principal Sir Keith Mills, who rode on board again today as 18^th man, had this to say minutes after the race:  “That was a very close race up the first beat, with both teams arriving at the top mark within half a boatlength. We got an overlap and thought we had given them a penalty but the umpires did not agree. We had to slow down as we were luffed and the Italians got away from us and that was the race really. A close one, but not to be for us – a great competitor in Azzurra, they are well practised and a team that knows conditions on the Mediterranean really well.”

 

With their win the Italian team Azzurra advanced to the Louis Vuitton Trophy final where they will race the Emirates Team New Zealand in a best of three series that concludes on Sunday.

 

TEAMORIGIN then sailed the Russian Synergy team in a one-off petit final race for third and fourth place. TEAMORIGIN won the start and the right hand side of the course and led around the first mark before heading down the first run in light, light airs. Synergy rounded 24 seconds later and committed themselves to a costly gybe set and split from the leader. The British team chose not to gybe, a potentially costly manoeuvre in these extremely light conditions, allowing a big split to develop. When the pair came back together Synergy, with good momentum, sailed right through to leeward as TEAMORIGIN gybed and slowed right down allowing the Russian team to sail into an unassailable lead. TEAMORIGIN therefore finishes the Louis Vuitton Trophy in fourth place.

 

 

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice-Côte d’Azur

Current standings

Competing teams – Country – Skipper – Record (W-L)

1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) – Dean Barker, 11-2

2. Azzurra (ITA) – Francesco Bruni, 9-5

3. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) – Karol Jablonski, 8-6

4. TEAMORIGIN (GBR) – Ben Ainslie, 9-6

5. ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) – Jochen Schuemann, 5-8

6. BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) – Gavin Brady, 5-8

7. Artemis (SWE) – Paul Cayard, 5-7

8. Team French Spirit – Pages Jaunes (FRA) – Bertrand Pacé, 1-11

 

 

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