It has to be said that the Mediterranean has been serving up some very tough conditions for the VOR-70s, with over thirty knots of westerly wind on the nose and above all increasingly big seas where the waves are in excess of five metres!
http://www.cammas-groupama.com/fr/index....
Australian sailors Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have made history with their gold medal at the 2012 49er World Championship in Zadar, Croatia.
The win was Outteridge’s fourth world title and Jensen’s third, with the skipper putting his name in the history books as the first sailor to win four 49er World Championships.
Outteridge has won four of the last five 49er World Championships, having first tasted success back in 2008, alongside former crew Ben Austin, and then claiming the 2009, 2011 and now the 2012, titles with Jensen.
Outteridge and Jensen finished 13 points ahead of New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke with Danish duo Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang a further 15 back in third.
Both Australian Sailing Federation and New Zealand Sailing Federation are proudly supplied by Slam with garments of skiff and technical line.
This low-key result for Groupama 4 is still a job well done though, as the French boat has managed to hold onto second place in the overall standing and is now just eleven points shy of Telefonica...
It's probably the most stressful leg Franck Cammas and his crew have experienced to date! Indeed, from the start in Itajai some 17 days 07 hours 29 minutes ago, Groupama 4 got left behind due to the breeze kicking in from the front of the fleet, favouring the leaders, who subsequently amassed a lead of as much as 157 miles offshore of Brazil... However, the French never gave up and gradually managed to catch up with and then overtake Abu Dhabi before the Antilles, before attempting a courageous option, which bore fruit when the Spanish had to gybe to reposition themselves offshore of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
http://www.slam.com/products/groupama.ht...
Australian sailor Tom Slingsby has won the 2012 Audi Laser World Championship with a race to spare in Boltenhagen, Germany.
Tom, as well as the entire crew of Australian Sailing Federation pro sailors, are supplied by Slam with the most technical gear. Slam skiff collection was born exactly to improve performances of sailors racing in this kind of top level competitions.
The 2012 title was Slingsby’s fifth in six years as he cements his position at the top of the Laser class in the final run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.
“This could be my last Laser World Championship and it’s great to finish it so well,” said Slingsby. “I sailed my best this week in conditions that I traditionally haven’t done well in, so to win it like this feels really good. This is my fifth Laser world title but it’s my first in light conditions which is really satisfying.”
“Hopefully this win sends the message that I’m definitely no light wind pushover,” he said. “Heading into the Games I know that I still need to improve and that I still have work to do. The rest of the fleet is going to be trying to topple me so I’ve got to be on my game and keep pushing.”
Franck Cammas and his men rounded Cape Horn this Friday at 1255 UTC and are leading this fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. They still have 1,700 miles to go before they reach Brazil and the Americans are putting increasing pressure on them as Puma is just an hour astern of Groupama 4.
"Puma is now our most dangerous rival so we're sailing according to what she does. For the overall ranking it would be good to keep the Americans astern of us into Itajai, but I think Telefonica will be able to hang onto third place in this leg. Ken Read and his crew aren't making many mistakes and they've negotiated the South Pacific very well. It's certainly going to be a fine race to Brazil! We'll have to make sure we don't fall asleep on the job..." stated Franck Cammas before Cape Horn.
Insignificant separation
Indeed the Americans made up a vast amount of their deficit last night due to the series of gybes Groupama 4 had to link together to adapt to the north-westerly wind shift. Puma was able to benefit from a more gradual shift to gain nearly forty miles in one night and the two boats were close to each other as they rounded Cape Horn, early this Friday afternoon: Franck Cammas and his men caught a brief glimpse of the legendary rock at 1400 hours, followed an hour later by Ken Read and his crew. This island to the extreme South marks a radical change, not just in terms of the sea state and the cold, which has reigned over recent days, but also the degree of intensity of this leg, which has transformed into a Franco-American duel. However, the weather situation after Drake's Passage isn't the easiest to understand...
In fact the solid twenty knots or so of north-westerly wind, which was blowing as they rounded the legendary rock, will ease considerably offshore of Isla de Los Estados. Added to that, the warm front which generated the mist at daybreak this Friday, will give way to less cloudy skies. It would seem that two major options are possible for the climb up to Brazil: a route along the Argentinean coast in a moderate westerly air flow with the emergence of a mini depression to the North of the Falklands, or a more easterly trajectory, leaving the Falklands to port so as to distance themselves from the influence of the Andes cordillera and skirt around the outside of this barometric minimum. However, what's vital in all this is their positioning around Rio de la Plata in three days' time, as a zone of high pressure is blocking the way to Brazil. For the French, the decision about which way to go will also depend on how the Americans react to the situation...
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Beneath the gaze of several thousand spectators flocked along the dockside, Groupama 4 was forced to link together two manœuvres to get clear, and the hierarchy was established before the fleet had even rounded the final windward mark. The New Zealanders were then able to hoist their spinnaker for a second time without being hounded, tailed by the Americans a minute further back and the French a few boat lengths shy of them. The surprise performance came from the Chinese boat, with her Kiwi skipper Mike Sanderson, who was also very familiar with the specific features of the race zone: Sanya took fourth place whilst Abu Dhabi, despite fluffing a spinnaker manœuvre, managed to finish ahead of the Spanish.
This counter performance by Telefonica thus enabled Groupama 4 to close down the Iberians' lead to just fifteen points, whilst retaining a three-point lead over the New Zealanders in the overall standing. A smooth operation then on the eve of the longest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race (6,705 miles), the start of which will take place on Sunday at 1400 hours local time (0100 UTC) bound for Itajai (Brazil), via Cape Horn. The forecast suggests that the first two days at sea will be very difficult.
eg
The team supplied by Slam has reached speed pick over 20 knots to win this leg.
On crossing the finish line this Saturday at 1033 UTC, Groupama 4 secures victory in this fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. A very important result for Franck Cammas and his men after sailing over 6,500 miles between Sanya (China) and Auckland (New Zealand) in some tough weather conditions and one that came about thanks to a sound strategic option in the North Pacific.
It's a very important win for the French team, who now have a chance of moving up a place in the overall standing (depending on Camper's result). Most significantly though, Groupama 4 is the first boat to stand out on an oceanic leg after the three consecutive Spanish victories in Cape Town, Abu Dhabi and Sanya. Furthermore, Auckland is a city which is geared towards the sea and sailing is the national sport along with rugby. To take this win in New Zealand, Franck Cammas and his men have taken 19 days and 15 hours to sail the 5,220-mile great circle route, though in reality, the prevailing headwinds on this leg have forced them to sail a total of over 6,500 miles across the water!
See the Groupama official collection by Slam on line.
http://www.slam.com/products/groupama.ht...
Though the Spanish have once again taken victory in this third oceanic leg, Franck Cammas and his men have earned themselves a superb second place in China and boosted their position on the podium in the overall standing. Groupama 4 is now proving to be a real threat to Camper and is gaining an edge over Puma and Abu Dhabi.
Groupama 4 crossed the finish line in China at 05:45:25 UTC after 12 days 21 hours 45 mins and 25 seconds at sea, taking them through the Straits of Malacca and along the Vietnamese coast.
The French crew thus earns 24 points in this third leg, really putting the New Zealanders on Camper under pressure in the provisional overall standing and reinforcing its lead over the Americans on Puma, despite only being a third of the way into this crewed round the world with stopovers. Six legs and six months of competition remain for the French to contest the current domination by the Spanish crew, skippered by double Olympic gold medallist Iker Martinez.
Australian sailors have won two medals on the final day of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami, Florida, with Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page claiming Gold in the 470 class and Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty picking up Silver in the Women’s Match Racing. Paralympic sailors Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch have picked up Australia’s first medal at the ISAF Sailing World Cup round in Miami, Florida, winning Gold in the Skud 18 class.
Though Ian Walker unquestionably dominated the In-Port race off Abu Dhabi, Franck Cammas and his men demonstrated outstanding potential in the light airs, which swept a race zone covered in spectator boats. By scoring second place, Groupama 4 confirms that her slight deficit in breeze of less than eight knots is already ancient history...
Franck Cammas: "It was a fine battle and a very fine score. Particularly of note was a fruitful confrontation with Camper, which is a real specialist in this type of short course. Our consistent performance enabled us to get past them. It's also great for Ian Walker and his crew on Abu Dhabi! They weren't the best conditions for us but we managed to get some good boat speed and that's good news for the next stage... We have to believe in what we do, take the initiative and be aggressive: we have to keep up the work we're doing. We've adapted the boat for the third leg where there will be a fair bit of close-hauled sailing and light airs and today's results back up our options: it's getting better and better aboard the boat in terms of communication and refining the trim. Even the best crews, such as that on Telefonica, can lose races, but we know that we're all very similar in terms of performance and the Volvo Ocean Race is very long! Things are working well for us at the moment and it's very hard to say who's going to lose and gain places over the coming legs..."
Points for the In-Port race in Abu Dhabi:
1-Abu Dhabi (Ian Walker) 6 points
2-Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas) 5 points
3-Camper (Chris Nicholson) 4 points
4-Puma (Ken Read) 3 points
5-Telefonica (Iker Martinez) 2 points
After 6 hours and 52 minutes of racing, just 52 seconds separated the winner from the team in second place.
Polled in fourth place at the first mark, Franck Cammas and his crew picked off their rivals one by one through a combination of good speed and tactical choices, particularly during the final downwind sprint in which they snatched the lead.
Though this victory doesn't alter the standing for this leg, it has enabled Groupama 4 to make up a few points in the overall standing.
It has also served as a confidence boost for Franck and his men after an especially unlucky run in the first part of this second leg, which saw them leading before becoming ensnared in the Doldrums.
Ranking for the second part of the second leg:
1.Groupama 4 in 6hr52 mins
2.Telefonica 52 seconds astern of the leader
3.Camper 5 mins 29 seconds astern of the leader
4.Puma 6 mins 19 seconds astern of the leader
5.Abu Dhabi 10 mins 12 seconds astern of the leader
eg
Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team may have been edged out of the top three in the first stage of Leg 2 but they will get a consolation prize – the IWC Schaffhausen Speed Record Challenge trophy.
The French team led the race from Cape Town to an unnamed ‘safe haven’ in the Indian Ocean for three days but eventually had to settle for fourth place after becoming snared by the Doldrums.
Although Leg 2 isn’t over yet, Groupama’s 24-hour run of 478.28 nautical miles up to 0910 UTC on December 21 is good enough to hand them the award for this leg because the next part of the leg to Abu Dhabi should not last 24 hours.
SLAM by partnership with Australian Sailing Team and Yachting New Zealand has won 6 medals at the ISAF worlds in Perth. Three gold medals (M Laser, 49er M and 470 M, 1 silver (49er M) and two bronzes (470 F and M LASER).
Slingsby’s win was his fourth world title in five years, cementing himself at the top of the Laser class as he continues his preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Capping off the week for Australia the nation was awarded the IOC President’s Trophy for the most successful team at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships with three Gold medals.
Gold medals: 470 M Belcher-Page, Australian Sailing team
LASER M Slinsgby- Australian Sailing Team
49er Outteridge-Jensen-Australian Sailing Team
SIlver medal: 49er Burling-Tuke, Yachting New Zealand
Bronze medal: 470 W Aleh-Powrie, Yacthing New Zealand
Laser M Murdoch, Yachting New Zealand
Congratulation!
Australian sailors Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page have won the 2011 470 World Championships with another strong day of racing in Western Australia. The win came at the end of an incredibly consistent week where they didn’t finish outside of the top 10 once, winning six races on the way to the 2011 World Championship title.
“Today’s feeling is just the best,” said Page. “It’s something we’ve been aiming for all year, it’s our peak regatta and to come here and to sail how we have is a really good confidence builder for us towards London 2012, I’m very happy with how it panned out, you won’t be able to wipe the smile off my face.”
Belcher and Page went into the final 10 boat medal race with an 18 point lead over Great Britain’s Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell, knowing that they just had to make sure they didn’t finish last if the British team won the race, to secure the title.
http://www.perth2011.com/competition/PER...
Australian Sailing Team members now sit at the top of the world in three classes following the overnight release of the latest ISAF World Sailing Rankings.
Australian crews continue to hold down the number one positions in the Laser and 470 classes and now add first and third in the 49er class after the latest release.
The world rankings show Australia as sitting at the top of three of the 10 Olympic classes, the only country to currently have three world number ones and with the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships beginning in Western Australia on December 3 the rankings show that the team is progressing well.
Australian reigning Laser and 470 World Champions, Tom Slingsby and Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, continue to lead the way in their respective classes but they’ve now been joined by 49er crew Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen who have got to the top spot for the first time.
http://www.yachting.org.au/...
The final day of Sail Melbourne featured close racing across the fleets with the top 10 boats in each class hitting Port Phillip Bay for the medal races.
Australia claimed its first Gold medal in the 49er class with Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen prevailing in a tight finale. Outteridge and Jensen had to stay ahead of fellow Australians Will and Sam Phillips and keep New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair in check to claim the medal and the pair finished the race second to grab the Gold medal.
Tom Slingsby already had the Laser Gold medal secured thanks to his 19 point overnight lead but went on to claim the title in style, with a medal race win giving him a 27 point buffer over Great Britain’s Nick Thompson with Australian Tom Burton winning Bronze.
“I just wanted to keep my nose clear out there, I was back off the line and steady in my movements and found myself last three-quarters of the way up the first beat,” said Slingsby. “A big set of waves from a boat going past gave me a good boost and I shot around the top mark in first.
Jessica Crisp won Gold in the RS:X women’s in the tightest finish of the regatta, with the triple Olympian only claiming the title after a count back following the medal race. Crisp knew that she had to beat Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw to get the Gold and she did it in style, pushing hard the whole way through the medal race and crossing the line first, with Shaw second and Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini third. JP Tobin (New Zealand) won the gold medal in the RS:X men's.
Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell continued their dominance of this week’s 470 women’s class with the new pairing winning the medal race and Gold in just their first regatta together.
Rechichi and Stowell have only just teamed up and are working hard towards the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships which will be sailed on their home waters in December.
“It’s nice to have the win and our first medal race together which has given us some great practice,” said Rechichi. “While it’s great to have the results it’s been an awesome opportunity to improve everyday given our short time in the boat, everyday is hugely valuable and hopefully we can keep building on that and putting in the work for Perth.
Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page went into the 470 medal race third overall, in a tight battle with fellow Australians Sam Kivell and Will Ryan and American’s Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl for the medals.
Belcher and Page did all they could in the medal race, taking the win, but McNay and Biehl’s second gave them the Gold medal with Belcher and Page finishing with Silver and Kivell and Ryan Bronze. The leading crews have been neck and neck all week with all three spending some time at the top of the leaderboard across the event.
In the Laser Radial class Krystal Weir went into the medal race in third position, just three points ahead of the fourth and fifth placed crews. The Australian finished the medal race in third, giving her the Bronze medal by a single point off Great Britain’s Alison Young.
Matt Bugg finished the 2.4mR regatta in the same way as he started it with a race win to claim the Gold medal. Bugg won nine of the 10 races to secure himself the Gold medal by a massive 21 points from fellow Australians Greg Hyde and Michael Leydon.
Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch continued their great second half of the regatta in the Skud 18 class with a final race win securing the Silver medal for the pair, with fellow Australians Jamie Dunross and Rachael Cox third. Australian sailors claimed Silver and Bronze in the Finn class with Oliver Tweddell winning the medal race to cement his second position behind Ukrainian Oleksiy Borysov with Australian Rob McMillan winning Bronze.
Next stop for the Australians is Western Australia with the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships beginning on December 3.
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The long awaited Round the World race with crew, the famous but extremely tough Volvo Ocean Race, left from Alicante on Saturday 5th November with a first leg scheduled from Alicante to Cape Town for a total of 6500 miles. The only Italian representative is the Genoese SLAM, the official technical sailing clothing supplier to the Groupama 4 team. SLAM has developed new cutting edge oceanic oilskins, custom made to the demands of the French circumnavigator Franck Cammas and his crew, to tackle this Volvo Ocean Race.
In this way SLAM, who already won the Americas Cup with BMW ORACLE Racing, has another opportunity of continuing to develop the technical “Sailing gear” line, this time devoting itself to the rules dictated by the ocean and extreme, long distance regattas, introducing new improvements both from a fabric and detail point of view.
The start of the regatta proved to be a hard one straight away under the feared conditions which even the Mediterranean Sea is capable of unleashing: strong winds with short choppy waves. An important stress test right away for the SLAM oilskins therefore – and not only, seeing that two boats suffered technical damages to mast and hull just a few miles out from the start – that should give the SLAM Research&Development team essential feedback. But after the first stormy hours the crews will have to reckon with heat and humidity as they approach the equator en route for Cape Town; here again SLAM has a series of articles developed to protect and save the yachtsmen from these weather conditions. Articles exploiting modern materials and offering the skin a sensation of wellbeing, essential in long distance regattas. Polypropylene, seamless, state-of-the-art microfibre, which the crews just simply dreamed about in the 70’s and 80’s in the first editions of this Round the World race with crew! Everything is absolutely concentrated on the speed of the yacht only nowadays and the clothes being worn must assure maximum comfort so as not to create distractions having nothing to do with the boat’s performance and result of the regatta. SLAM is proud of being the only Italian technical clothing business present at the Volvo Ocean Race, bringing – in its own small way – a little bit of honour to our peninsula and demonstrating that Italian research as well as in many other fields, is very much active in yachting as well, in its search for technical and technological excellence.
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With 4 races on Saturday, 3 races on Sunday and only one discard, every single race could make a difference. The fleet quickly found out that the left hand side of the course was favoured and that having a fast start at the correct end of the line (adjusted after each race) was the key competitive advantage to be able go left in as much clean air as possible. The current was also an important factor and a number of competitors overstood the port layline by a few boat lengths on the first races.
Karl Grebstad the defending champion sailing his new boat (D51) lead the series after day one with a handy 5 point lead ahead of his rival Tam Nguyen (D55) and 7 points ahead of Lowell Chang (D46). Counting discards, Phyllis Chang (D50) and Simon Chan (D50) were also in the competition for the title.
However D51 went into Sunday’s first race too aggressively and was caught OCS. This damaged his points buffer and with Tam Nguyen (D55) winning the first two races of the day it was all down to the last race for the championship. To retain the titles Karl Grebstad and his team had to place no lower than 4th in the last race. Knowing this Tam Nguyen (D55) and his team elected to cover Karl Grebstad and his team (D51) and force them back into the fleet. While the championship top two boats D51 and D55 were dancing together around back of the fleet, the battle for first continued between husband and wife Lowell Chang (D46) and Phyllis Chang (D50). Phyllis Chang stayed ahead of her Husband to win the final race. However Lowell won overall against his wife in the championship results with a 3rd while Phyllis came in a close 4th.
After a quick way back to Middle Island with strengthening wind and chop conditions, the participants, families and sponsors enjoyed a nice casual hamburger dinner on Middle Island lawn before the Prize Giving ceremony where Slam representative Jack Young offered prizes to the first three overall winners.
The success of the event was made possible by the strong support of the sponsors, Nepa Shipping, Slam and Northrop & Johnson and was covered by photographer Guy Nowell and cameraman Oliver Merz both driven around the course on the Northrop & Johnson rib.
ph. credit: With 4 races on Saturday, 3 races on Sunday and only one discard, every single race could make a difference. The fleet quickly found out that the left hand side of the course was favoured and that having a fast start at the correct end of the line (adjusted after each race) was the key competitive advantage to be able go left in as much clean air as possible. The current was also an important factor and a number of competitors overstood the port layline by a few boat lengths on the first races.
Karl Grebstad the defending champion sailing his new boat (D51) lead the series after day one with a handy 5 point lead ahead of his rival Tam Nguyen (D55) and 7 points ahead of Lowell Chang (D46). Counting discards, Phyllis Chang (D50) and Simon Chan (D50) were also in the competition for the title.
However D51 went into Sunday’s first race too aggressively and was caught OCS. This damaged his points buffer and with Tam Nguyen (D55) winning the first two races of the day it was all down to the last race for the championship. To retain the titles Karl Grebstad and his team had to place no lower than 4th in the last race. Knowing this Tam Nguyen (D55) and his team elected to cover Karl Grebstad and his team (D51) and force them back into the fleet. While the championship top two boats D51 and D55 were dancing together around back of the fleet, the battle for first continued between husband and wife Lowell Chang (D46) and Phyllis Chang (D50). Phyllis Chang stayed ahead of her Husband to win the final race. However Lowell won overall against his wife in the championship results with a 3rd while Phyllis came in a close 4th.
After a quick way back to Middle Island with strengthening wind and chop conditions, the participants, families and sponsors enjoyed a nice casual hamburger dinner on Middle Island lawn before the Prize Giving ceremony where Slam representative Jack Young offered prizes to the first three overall winners.
The success of the event was made possible by the strong support of the sponsors, Nepa Shipping, Slam and Northrop & Johnson and was covered by photographer Guy Nowell and cameraman Oliver Merz both driven around the course on the Northrop & Johnson rib.
The first round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup has kicked off at Sail Melbourne, with a number of Australian Sailing Team and new zealand crews enjoying a strong opening day on Port Phillip Bay.
http://sailmelbourne.com.au/website/resu...
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