Off for the 3rd leg.

The 8 boats left Cochin, India heading to Singapore, running the shortest leg of the whole race. Ericsson 4, commanded by fellow Brazilian Torben Grael is leading again closely followed by Telefonica Blue. This talented men keep pushing those boats every time harder and harder and some of them are already showing signs of wear and tear. Delta Lloyd has been slowed down due to failures on one of the rams of her canting keel mechanism. As I am writing this post Torben is 709 miles from the finishe line and the last boat is only 147 miles behind. Not much for the ocean and travelling at 20 knots average.
Salude Torben...time for some Caipirinha.

Bluewater for eight!

Eight top of the notch sailing machines left Alicante, Spain, on Saturday 11th. heading towards Cape Town, South Africa. Even though the Atlantic is large body of water, the leader boat is 146 nautical miles ahead of the last boat as I write this post. Team Puma is the USA entry and is leading the pack, closely followed by the Ericsson's boats. Once again, the world is the race course and crews, designers, boat builders and sailmakers have been pushed to their limits. This time the VOR 70's are crewed by 11 members; it seems a lot of people, but think that a J/24 carries 5 crew members and sometimes is hands full, so this guys are being pushed to the limit and are not only pursuing finishing the race or even win it; there are records that are still waiting to be broken.
There are still more than 5,000 miles to go before approaching Cape Town. We will keep an eye on the 8 in the blue.
More information: www.volvooceanracing.com

Photo courtesy of VOR

Square.

Imagine a square box (90' x 90') as your boat slip... pretty cool . uh? Well, Mr. Ellison must have one of those; his new ACC Trimaran is 90' long by 90' wide ,under the command of Russell Coutts for the next ACC campaign. We think it is a great idea to have multi hulls on the Cup since even though the match race battle is not as good as it is with mono hulls only, the real racers are the only one who understand how a match race goes while most of the spectators do not have a clue about sailing, but adrenaline, speed and crashes are enjoyed by everybody (ask any NASCAR fan) and exactly there is where the big tri's come into play. If we want our sport / lifestyle grows or at least stops dying, we need the multis.

Light (air) in Qingdao

Light (air) in Qingdao.
One of the most, if not the most, controversial sailing Olympics ever. Qingdao has become a sailing challenge for all the classes, not only for the mere fact of racing at the highest level in the world, but also for the local conditions as well: light airs have been the everyday deal, not to mention the proliferation of the algae, which has made it really hard for the organizers (kudos for their efforts!). Now, these conditions are showing something more than just weather and sailing skills. Our beloved sport is already struggling when we compare it to other disciplines where media coverage and fan action is as important as the competition itself, that is why boats are improving in design and becoming more demanding to the sailors, but Qingdao is not going to make it easy for anybody. Having an average wind speed of 7 knots, you don't see wild 49ers planning, capsizing or just smoking upwind; the RSX Formula has become an endurance race instead of a regatta where competitors are just looking for high pressure spots on the water and pumping as much as they can to gain that little extra speed, it has definitively being really hard on them. These are good news for three Tornado teams, though. With a new Code Zero designed to get advantage of the light winds of Qingdao, the teams from USA, Australia and Netherlands are calling the attention of competitors and fans, not all are nice comments. This will be a test field for these pioneers, some say they are breaking the rules....we don't think so. Picture courtesy of the Tornado International Class Association.

Coaching in Texas....during summer!

Ok, today was one of the windiest and warmest days of the Texan summer, we saw temperatures of 106 F in Lake Texoma, but still we had some decent wind and was good enough for a 3 hour sail practice. This time Course Racing went to the water on Cayenne, a Hunter 35 based at Cedar Mills Yacht Club, owned by David Bouschor, renowned Lawyer in North Texas (www.dsblegal.com ) and Roy Anderson, of the succesfull accounting firm Anderson-Spector (www.andersonspector.com). These two gentlemen have been putting a crew together for quite sometime now and they are certainly making their way thru the race course. Even though there are still many steps to follow ( I think on sailing there is never enough), the crew coordination is improving and the maneuvers are getting better and better, so keeping the pace of the practice sessions will be key to achieve the desired results on the water. Our main goal today was to improve cockpit work during the "off the wind" boat handling. Trimmers have set their task very clearly and now the once crowded and messy cockpit, is becoming a place where all the lines are running at the right time at the right speed. I must say that one of the best achievements of today's practice was the fact of realizing how important is the helmsperson during the jibe, since on a sailboat like the Hunter 35, where the technique to apply is the "dip pole jibe", the steering must be carefully made, since is the driver who helps keep the Spinnaker full will the foredeck crew reconnect the pole to the new side. Kudos's to the crew of Cayenne and let's keep up with the hard work.

Melges 32 fleet growing and getting better.

This past July 23th to 27th the 2008 National Championship was held on the waters of Newport , R.I. The starting line saw 22 boats where porfessional and amateur talent fought hard on each race. Jeff Ecklund and the crew of Star won the regatta and crowned 2008 National Champions. Kuddos to Jeff and the Melges guys, as well as all the boat owners and crew for being so supportive and serious about what they do. It has been a great example of organization and passion for our sport. It is true that is not the cheapest boat on the market, but that has not been an obstruction for the class to keep growing at a very decent pace and even more having calender busy enough to keep everybody busy all year round. Example to follow. Results available here.