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Longest Sailing Day of the Year Coming June 17th
San Francisco, CA - Want to win a one-week BVI charter with the Moorings? Whether racing the the Hobie Regatta at Big Bear Lake, the Centennial Bermuda Race, finishing the VOR in Goteberg, screaming through the gates in San Francisco Speed Week or sailing anywhere, everyone sailing on June 17th is invited to sign up and participate in the sixth annual Summer Sailstice celebration of sail. Regardless of where in the world you sail, by signing up, you become part of the global sailing holiday and are eligible to win prizes including a one-week BVI charter from the Moorings, a Hobie kayak, an Achilles inflatable, a Hunter Xcite, Steiner binoculars and over 200 other prizes supplied by premier marine businesses. All prizes are awarded by random drawing after the sign up deadline of June 21st - the summer solstice. Sign up at http://www.summersailstice.com and go sailing.
About Summer Sailstice: Founded in 2001 by John Arndt, Summer Sailstice is a global holiday celebrating sailing annually on the summer solstice. The goal of Summer Sailstice is to encourage all sailors and sailing organizations in the Northern Hemisphere to participate by sailing and celebrating wherever they are on the longest sailing day of the year. The event is facilitated by a website http://www.summersailstice.com allowing participants to register their participation, win prizes supplied by the marine industry, host an event and connect with other event participants in their area.
About Summer Sailstice: Founded in 2001 by John Arndt, Summer Sailstice is a global holiday celebrating sailing annually on the summer solstice. The goal of Summer Sailstice is to encourage all sailors and sailing organizations in the Northern Hemisphere to participate by sailing and celebrating wherever they are on the longest sailing day of the year. The event is facilitated by a website http://www.summersailstice.com allowing participants to register their participation, win prizes supplied by the marine industry, host an event and connect with other event participants in their area.
418 Entered for 2006 Zwitserleven Round Texel Race
On Monday June 12th 2006, the organization of the 29th Zwitserleven Round Texel Race received 418 pre-entries. As of Wednesday June 14th, sailors from all over the world will drop in and the annual catamaran spectacle will start on the Dutch Wadden Island Texel. The complete national multihull top is present, among which last year’s overall winners Mischa Heemskerk and Sander de Boer and record-holders Wouter Samama and Jeroen van Leeuwen. Zwitserleven Sailing Team Booth/Dercksen, part of the Dutch Olympic team, will try again its luck in winning the line honours. A helicopter will give the famous smokey starting signal on Saturday June 17th at about noon.
Round Texel Co-ordinator Edwin Lodder: "For now, the pre-entries are less than in 2005, but we expect late comers. Especially with the good weather forecast for the coming week. After last year’s rough conditions, many participants decided to wait and see what will happen this time." At the moment, the fleet represents ten nationalities. Former overall winner and silver medallist of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Darren Bundock (AUS), and French top sailor Jean-Christophe Mourniac are back to challenge the Dutchmen. The young winners of the Texel Dutch Open 2005, Kearns and Bearns (GBR), will defend their title. This championship, officially recognized by the Royal Dutch Yachting Association, is to be sailed from June 14th until June 16th and exists of course races. Many sailors consider it as a good training for the Zwitserleven Round Texel on Saturday. On Friday afternoon, ten teams will participate in the first TNG Short Track. They will sail knock-out races and the last two boats will battle against each other in the final.
Orange II and Bruno Peyron Move to Code Orange
Newport, Thursday 8th June 2006 - Frenchman Bruno Peyron, the skipper of Orange II, has moved to "Code Orange " today, which means that Peyron and the crew of the giant maxi-catamaran may set sail in the next few days on their attempt at the North Atlantic crossing record, between New York (USA) and The Lizard (GB).Bruno Peyron and Orange II Set to Attempt Transatlantic Record
- French adventurer Bruno Peyron is on standby for the "window of
opportunity" to break American Steve
Fossett's North Atlantic crossing
record (from New York to The Lizard, in England)
- Fossett's record is 4 days, 17h, 28 minutes and 06 seconds. (established in 2001)
- By comparison, a cruise ship takes 6 days to make the 3100 nautical mile Transatlantic voyage
- Only Peyron has tackled this record since Fawcett's '01 accomplishment; in 2004, he missed the record by a mere 31 minutes
- Peyron will use as his weapon the giant maxi-catamaran Orange II
- The boat is longer (121 ft.) and nearly as wide (59 ft.) as a tennis court
- It stands, with its rotating wing mast, as tall as the Arc de Triomphe
- It sails downwind with 5X more sail area than a Volvo Open 70
- The best weather would be a low pressure system, with constant wind at
27-35 knots (and no waves), that Orange II could ride -- without
interruption -- across the entire ocean
- To beat Fossett's record, a boat speed average of 26 knots must be maintained at all times
- Peyron holds the 24-hour speed record (established in 2004) aboard Orange II, having averaged 29.42 knots.
- Peyron holds the around-the-world speed record (established in 2005) aboard Orange II (50 d, 16 h, 20 min, 4 sec, established in 2005)
Great Texas Catamaran Race, South Padre Island, Texas
This year TheBeachcats.com will have on-the-scene reports from the Great Texas Catamaran Race. The race starts June 14th, so watch this space for reports and photos.
If you aren't familiar with the Great Texas, which started in 2003, here is a description from the race headquarters site "The Great Texas Catamaran Race is an off-shore beach catamaran race along the Texas Coast. Starting in South Padre Island and finishing in Galveston, the race covers approximately 300 miles along the Texas coast over the Father’s Day weekend. The race will be conducted in four stages with each stage starting and ending on the beach! This will be the fourth year that the Great Texas Catamaran race is held."
Click here for the Great Texas Catamaran Race, Notice of Race for more info.
If you aren't familiar with the Great Texas, which started in 2003, here is a description from the race headquarters site "The Great Texas Catamaran Race is an off-shore beach catamaran race along the Texas Coast. Starting in South Padre Island and finishing in Galveston, the race covers approximately 300 miles along the Texas coast over the Father’s Day weekend. The race will be conducted in four stages with each stage starting and ending on the beach! This will be the fourth year that the Great Texas Catamaran race is held."
Click here for the Great Texas Catamaran Race, Notice of Race for more info.
Spectacular capsizes at Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix
Team Holmatro started inconsistantly at the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix in
Portsmouth (GBR). After two days and eight races, the Dutch entry claims
a fourth position overall. The Austrian Andreas Hagara, former European
and national Champion Tornado, did the honours as a skipper on Sunday.
He performed pretty well with a series of 4-2-2-4. On Tuesday May 30,
Mitch Booth returned in his role as skipper with Hagara next to him. The
crew experienced difficulties with the short course and a drop on the
point table was inevitable. Tommy Hilfiger and subsequently the Volvo
Ocean Race multihull made history as first VX 40's to capsize in a
breeze up to 25 knots. Basilica stood up against all risks and is
leading, followed by Tommy Hilfiger and Motorola.
"That
was an entertaining day", said Mitch Booth afterwards on the
dock. "I was so much distracted on the downwind leg, that I sailed over
the starting buoy." It was Leigh MacMillan that pitchpoled first with
the Motorola in the second race. The crew was hanging in the air for
seconds, with the rudders free. The VX 40 came down snail-like and
everybody drew a breath of relief, as nobody knew the consequences of a
capsize. The answer came in the last race: the carbon boat and the
sailors were very strong. Randy Smith and his teammates were given the
honour to be the very first VX 40 upside down. They were just recovering
from a pitchpole, as the next wind gust came in. It blew the American
multihull over. A heavy rib was needed to upright it. While being in
this rescue process, the Volvo Ocean Race team pitchpoled merciless.
Skipper Yves Loday, designer of the VX 40 and 1992 olympic champion
Tornado, could not avoid this unvoluntary swim and crashed badly into
the mast. Loday, who had a bruise in his face: "The cold water relieved
the pain, but my back hurts now." Nevertheless, the sailors could still
make fun of it. Randy Smith, sitting on the upper hull and shouting down
to the people in the rib: "Of course we will finish the race anyway."
This did not happen.
Team Zwitserleven, Booth/Dercksen, Close to Medal at ISAF World Sailing Games
Lake Neusiedl, Austria, May 19th 2006 - Team Zwitserleven Booth/Dercksen is close to a medal at the ISAF WorldS ailing Games 2006 in Austria. After eight races on Lake Neusiedl, the Dutchmen are second on the points table of the Hobie Tiger class. The Australians Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby are leading. The medal race on May 20 will be decisive for the final podium ranking. According to Mitch Booth, the competition is close. Theoretically, it could be a win or a tenth.
Before Herbert Dercksen starts to talk about today's racing in Austria, he expresses his feelings about the tragedy onboard ABN AMRO II: This is a really tragic story and our deepest sympathy go out to all at the ABN Amro team, and our hearts go out to Hans=92 family and close friends.
Before Herbert Dercksen starts to talk about today's racing in Austria, he expresses his feelings about the tragedy onboard ABN AMRO II: This is a really tragic story and our deepest sympathy go out to all at the ABN Amro team, and our hearts go out to Hans=92 family and close friends.
2006 Hardway Distance Race Report
Team Full Tilt Race Report, Saturday, May 20, 2006My crew Corey M. & I entered my Tornado "Full Tilt" in the annual "Hardway" distance event this past Saturday. This race starts in Santa Barbara and finishes in Ventura harbor. There are several courses between the different fleets participating. The ORCA class big multi's typically go around Santa Cruz island for a ~70 mile distance...though this year they voted for the lesser 45 mile option of going around Anacapa island.
This year's event was officially opened up to the beachcats for the first time thanks to much lobbying by several individuals, including Ventura Nacra driver John S. Though John could not make the event himself, he did a lot of leg work promoting the it and even shuttled teams to SB the morning to the race!
We had 7 boats turn out....4 I20's, 1 Hobie Tiger, 1 Prindle 19 with spinnaker and our T. We were given the shortest course, sharing with the non-spinnaker class keelboats. Start outside SB harbor, Oil Rig Platform "C", Platform "Habitat", Platform "Grace" then finish inside Ventura harbor...for a 29 mile race distance.
Team Tybee Island Wins 2006 Tybee 500
May 19th, 2006 -- Team Tybee Island sailors John Casey and Kenny Pierce completed the 500 miles from Hollywood, FL to Tybee Island, GA in just 44 hours, 15 minutes and 54 seconds to win their 3rd Tybee 500 victory. Team Tybee made history by being the first team to win each individual leg in addition to the overall title. Daily event videos, pictures, and updates may be viewed at www.Tybee500.com.
Five other teams finished the race with three teams dropping out or being disqualified for receiving outside assistance. Team Tygart Racing had finished in the top 3 almost every leg, but on the last leg just miles from the finish, it was evident that something was wrong.
Five other teams finished the race with three teams dropping out or being disqualified for receiving outside assistance. Team Tygart Racing had finished in the top 3 almost every leg, but on the last leg just miles from the finish, it was evident that something was wrong.
March 2006 Mission Bay Yacht Club Cat Fight Results
Just Swell! MBYC Cat Fight, San Diego, California, by Connie Brown
What is cold (51 degrees), has a sizable storm swell, rains and has sun? A great weekend of Cat racing! On Saturday wind direction was due west at 270 degrees and blowing in the teens with swells from trough to peak from 8-10ft. Event coordinator, Carl Teyssier, noted that it was, “an educational day for skippers and crew”.
I had a different platform for this year’s Mission Bay Yacht Club Cat Fight. Usually, I would be hanging off the side of a cat catching a stiff breeze but this year I had a great ride on a 36ft Monohull Committee boat photographing the days events and the photo opts kept coming.
The swells on the first day crested one right after the other and sent several committee boats riders to the side rails more then once. Racing was a hard and fast. With several boats capsizing and a few completely turtled, some needed chase boat assistance. By the end of the second race on Saturday, more then half the boat had heading in. The other diehard teams wanted more. The Race Committee obliged.
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