Sailing Open 60’s at Cowes Week

BT Open 60 Sailboat

Sailing Open 60’s at Cowes Week

Cowes Week’s Artemis Challenge has long attracted some of the biggest names in the Open 60 sailing world. The 2009 entry list already boasts a fleet of seven boats, including five British skippers, as well as a taste of France and the Basque Country, and more teams are expected to join the line up! The Artemis Challenge yacht race is a 50 mile high speed sprint around the Isle of Wight for IMOCA 60s, with £10,000 donated to the charity of the winning skipper. The skippers and their teams will be joined by a number of high profile celebrities for the event, which this year will also be an ideal warm up ahead of the Rolex Fastnet Race. The race has quickly become a popular event for skippers and the general public alike, and has bred a strong competition amongst the skippers to take first prize.

The Open 60 sailing fleet already contains a host of world class sailors with a vast amount of experience and round the world voyages between them. With a number of other teams close to confirming their entries it will be an intense battle for the coveted trophy and donation to charity. This will be the first time since the Vendée Globe where skippers can get to show their raw boat speed in a quick battle.

Confirmed Artemis Challenge entries so far:

Akena Verandas: Arnaud Boissieres and Vincent Riou
Artemis Ocean Racing I: Simon Clay
Artemis Ocean Racing II: Skipper TBC
Aviva: Dee Caffari
BT IMOCA 60: Seb Josse
Toe in the Water: Steve White
Pakea Bizkaia: Unai Basurko

In 2008 it was a wet and gusty event, with eight IMOCA 60s charging around the Isle of Wight. It was a hard fought race with the teams showing a number of celebrity guests what it takes to sail these high-speed ocean racing yachts. However it was British skipper Brian Thompson who, in a time of 4 hours 14 minutes, claimed the first prize onboard Pindar in one of the fastest recorded times for circumnavigating the island, donating the winning prize to Earthwatch.

Seb Josse, Skipper of BT IMOCA 60: “The Artemis Challenge is a great event where we have to play with strong tidal currents and its effects can sometimes be costly! It is not a game that we are used to playing with our boats which are designed for distance offshore racing. It’s as well a great opportunity to test BT and compare our speed with others competitors after the post-Vendée Globe refits, ahead of the Fastnet Race. This year, even a French team is crossing the Channel to take part in the event. Racing in the Artemis Challenge and at Cowes Week is always amazing, the traffic on the water is crazy and the spirit onshore is always great.”

More Sailing News

Skandia Cowes Week

Skandia Cowes Week – Day Four

Cowes Week

There was no stopping Niklas Zennstrom’s TP52 Ran which for the fourth consecutive day took honors in IRC Class Zero, though on corrected time it was unbearably close with just 36 secs separating the top three boats.

Stuart Robinson’s Stay Calm was runner up while Benny Kelly’s Panthera was third, just 14 secs behind to go second overall with four races remaining.

It was the closest race so far, said Robinson and although Ran led all the way round, there was just half a boat length between them.

“Things were really close up by the forts and we were within half a boat length from Ran and Panthera were half a boat length behind. The four boats were within three boat lengths.

In the lighter winds, it is always going to be close but their program is a very professional one while I have mates from work on board. But it was great fun.”

The youngest skipper at Skandia Cowes Week, the pocket sized Fred Warren-Smith, who is 12 and from the Isle of Wight, posted his best result of the week with an excellent third place in the Squib class.

His boat, Aquabat is now placed in 5^th place overall and has every chance of catching the leaders Mike Probert’s Panu Munta and Penny and Mike Fenwick’s Ghost Hunter if he can maintain his splendid form.

Artemis Challenge

The big boats were ruling the waves on day four of Skandia Cowes Week at the second Artemis Challenge at Skandia Cowes Week for Open 60s.

For a closer look at Cowes Week check out: Cowes Week 2008

For a closer look at the iShares Cup at Cowes Week check out: Cowes Week – Crash and Capsizes for iShares or Spills and Thrills at iShares Cup UK – Sailing at Cowes Week

Skandia Cowes Week 2008

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

iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week by Rick 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

Skandia Cowes Week by Rick Tomlinson

Drizzle and dark storm clouds made for a dramatic backdrop on the Solent at Cowes Week, where over 968 sailing boats took to the race course on the first day of racing!

Read the full story here about the King of Cowes at Cowes Week.

Read all about Cowes Week here: Skandia Cowes Week