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Little America's Cup
27 August 2010
Well, it's more fun than the big America's Cup.
SLAM Kiwi Match - Detroit Cup Round Up
27 August 2010
It's not often you go to a regatta with minimal expectations only to have them met or surpassed once you're there, but the Detroit Cup run by the Bayview Yacht Club is a regatta that did just that. Detroit may be a city facing a few issues, but one issue they don't have is how to run a sailing regatta. This club really turns it on to provide everyone with a great and memorable time in Detroit. In the words of the Commodore, "If you don't feel welcome after 5 minutes at Bayview Yacht Club, it's probably your fault."
This was our second year in Detroit so we came into the regatta with a bit of an idea of what to expect. The regatta format consisted of a single round robin, quarter finals, semi's and final's, but with 12 top class teams there wasn't a lot of room for mistakes. Added to that were conditions which tested the race committee's ability to get races away in some very tricky conditions.
The first two days of racing were almost perfect but typically, the weather on Saturday proved so uncooperative that only the final three flights of the round robin were able to be raced and the quarter finals had to be cut from the programme. This left a number of teams with a bit of a problem, as now only the top 4 teams would qualify straight through to the semi finals. So any early losses in the round robin now became very costly and several teams were fighting to keep their hopes alive, including ourselves. Our problem though, was that we had already completed all our races and were relying on other results to go our way to ensure we could finish inside the top 4. Fortunately our Kiwi friends from Full Metal Jacket Racing were able to come from behind in their last race to beat local hero, Chris Van Tol. This result was perfect for us as it meant Chris was taken out of the equation and we progressed to 3rd on countback and into the semi finals.
Dave Perry qualified first and had the choice of opponent for the semi finals. He picked Taylor Canfield from the US Virgin Islands leaving us to race Detroit Cup defending champion Anna Tunnicliffe. The finals produced some great matches with most races going right down to the wire. Anna and her team had definitely bought their 'A' game, showing that the time put into their Olympic campaign has been paying off. We had a big piece of them in the pre-starts and were leading in both races, but Anna and her team proved that time together and time on the water pays and they were able to get around us in both races to win the semi final. Dave was pushed to 3 races by Taylor but eventually came out on top pulling a few old tricks out of the bag.
In a repeat of the Chicago Match Race petite final we had to race Taylor Canfield for 3rd and 4th. This time however we came out on the right side of the ledger easily beating him 2 - 0. Things weren't quite so one-sided in the final with Anna pushing Dave hard in all their races. Dave eventually came out on top however, confirming the master still has some lessons to teach his student.
To finish third against this field was good and another consistent result, but still just lacking the final touch to finish it off. This regatta completes our USA leg for now as we were unable to secure entry into the next regatta. We have really enjoyed our time here again and are really impressed with the things that are happening with Match Racing in North America. The clubs are putting in a lot of effort to ensure the sport reaches it's full potential. We would especially like to thank our hosts in both Chicago and Detroit; their hospitality is hugely appreciated and makes the trip that much more enjoyable. Thank you to SLAM and the RNZYS for supporting us and all our friends, family and supporters that follow our progress.
Final Results
Place Skipper
1 Dave Perry (USA)
2 Anna Tunnicliffe (USA)
3 Laurie Jury (NZL)
4 Taylor Canfield (USVI)
5 Bill Hardesty (USA)
6 Reuben Corbett (NZL)
7 Chris Van Tol (USA)
8 Henrique Haddad (BRA)
9 William Tiller (NZL)
10 Sergey Musikhin (RUS)
11 Nicolai Sehested (DEN)
12 Kent Colpaert (USA)
Audi MedCup
26 August 2010
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Here's Des
25 August 2010
JT's new tri launched
25 August 2010
More photos in the forums here.
MedCup
25 August 2010
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Did Texting Cause Accident?
25 August 2010
From Latitude 38:
August 23, 2010 - San Diego
The National Transportation Safety Board recently revealed that an unspecified number of crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard vessel that collided with a small boat in San Diego Harbor on December 20 were either texting or talking on their cell phones. Though stopping short of saying the activities were the direct cause of the accident, which killed an eight-year-old boy and seriously injured four other passengers, the NTSB urged the Coast Guard to develop a stricter policy regarding the use of electronic devices by its members. Though the agency acknowledges in a letter to the Coast Guard the potential usefulness of such devices as a backup for radio communications, "to achieve the intended improvement in safety, the NTSB believes that the Coast Guard must systematically identify the specific risks associated with distraction while using a cellphone or other wireless electronic device during vessel operations and address those risks in its policies."
- latitude / ld
Anyone up for a Challenge
24 August 2010
You'd probably have to leave from somewhere other than NZ though.
And one for Rigger
A good breeze and sunshine at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010
22 August 2010
From Lesley Haslar:
It's a week of competition and entertainment both on and off the water. Two boats from New Zealand are competing in the South Pacific Challenge.
The New Zealand team of two: In Grand Prix Division Jim Farmer's Georgia (Botin and Carkeek) against the Australian boat Shogun; In Performance Racing Division Rob Bassetts Wired (Bakewell White 52) against Nikon Spirit of the Maid.
Day one in the South Pacific Cup: Wired popped the champagne cork as Performance Racing Division winner and Shogun took first place against Georgia in the Grand Prix Division. End of day one - EQUAL.
Hannahs Point was pretty busy. Boats kissing the coastline, just a mingling of boats all shapes and sizes. Communication was often loud and clear, not to be repeated on Crew.org.....
Results (corrected time) Day 1 Performance Racing: Wired in first place out of 14 starters followed by Questionable Logic - Pandora - Stomp - Dream lover - Iago - One O Nine - Colortile - Rock N'Roll - Funnelweb - Ophir - Mondo - Jackpot - Nikon Spirit of the Maid
Results (corrected time) Day 1 Grand Prix Division: Loki took first place out of 16 starters followed by Living Doll - Wild Oats X - Shogun - Scarlet Runner - Georgia - Yendys -Blackjack - You're Hired - Alacrity - After Shock - Velocci - Terra Firms - Secret Men's Business - Wedgetail - Lahana
Day two: Wired started the day in pre-race with two whales - for the audience leaning over the railing at Hamilton Island Yaht Club. Who won? Wired kept clear 'calling for room'. The breeze steady 7-10 knots - a downwind start with Dent Island to port. After rounding Dent they headed over to Pine Island and Long Island.
Georgia has moved forward race by race, a good day on the water. There's more to come from Jim Farmerand his crew later in the Regatta. A little short on crew-chats today as the writer was required on the Golf Course at Dent Island.......
Results (corrected time) Day 2 Performance Racing: Questionable Logic took the prize - followed by Iago - One O Nine - Wired - Stomp - Colortile - Rock N' Roll - Pandora - Dream Lover - Ophir - Funnelweb - Jackpot -Nikon Spirit of the Maid - Mondo (RAF)
Results (corrected time) Day 2 Grand Prix Division (Race #2): Loki did it again in First place followed by Wild oatsX - Secret Men's Business - Blackjack - Living Doll - Georgia - Yendys - Shogun - Alacrity - Afterchock - Veloce - Terrafirma - Wedgetail - Lahana - Scarlett Runner - You're Hired
(Race #3) - Loki up front - followed by Blackjack - wild oats X - Georgia - Living Doll - Shogun - Yendys - Secret Men's Business - Lahana - You're Hired - TerraFirma - Scarlet Runner - Alacrity - Veloce - After Shock - Wedgetail
As of today (Sunday) - New Zealand is leading in the South pacific Cup.
Flipped Cat Anna Washes Up on Tonga
21 August 2010
From Latitude 38
August 20, 2010 - South Pacific
 (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) There are many false rumors flying around Tonga in relation to the capsizing of Anna. © 2010 Scott Stolnitz |
"Anna, the Atlantic 57 catamaran owned by Kelly Wright of Santa Fe, New Mexico, that flipped 125 miles from Niue in the South Pacific the first weekend in August, somehow managed to make her way unscathed through the East Reef passage of the outer reef at Vava'u, Tonga, then washed up against an island and was badly damaged," report Scott and Cindy Stolnitz of the Marina del Rey-based Switch 51 cat Beach House. "She's now tied to a mooring in Neiafu, where she looks like "parallel submarines at Disneyland."
With Anna's arrivel has come a lot more misinformation and baseless speculation. First off, the name of the cat is Anna, not Anna Valdivia as previously reported. Valdivia is the city in Chile where Awolplast, the builder of Anna and other Atlantic 55s and 57s, is located.
There have also been erroneous reports that Anna was a "giant Hobie Cat" that only weighed about 14,000 lbs, and her ultralight displacement contributed to her flipping. Designer Chris White assures us that the 14,000-lb weight rumor is complete nonsense, and that Anna weighed about 30,000 lbs when she went over. We have no doubt this is true, as Bob Smith's Pantera, which has been sailing all over Mexico for years, weighs 14,000 lbs, and she's only 44 feet, has a tiny salon, is ultra simple, and was built of carbon fiber.
There have also been reports that Anna's spinnaker was up when she flipped, so that she wasn't just carrying a reefed main and a self-tacking jib. Apparently this belief was based on the fact that the spinnaker, or part of it, was seen at some point billowing around in the water. Only Wright and his crewmember Glen McConchie of Christchurch know for sure, but we believe their claims that the chute wasn't up. After all, it was nighttime, there were only two of them, it had been squally, and rough weather had been forecast. Unless somebody says they found the halyard attached to the head of the chute and all the other spinny lines had been run, we're not going to doubt Wright. It's very easy to imagine that the chute had been in a bag on deck, and some or all of it had come out after more than 10 days of sloshing around in the ocean.
One of the crew of Forum Pacific, the ship that rescued the crew of Anna, took some interesting video while picking up the crew of the cat. Check it out below, because it's very interesting. You'll see the two men, Wright and McConchie, each standing up next to a rudder as the ship approaches, one of the ship's crew firing a really cool bucket-like device that shoots a line, and the two men climbing a ladder up the side of the ship.
The most amazing thing is how both Wright and McConchie, despite having been on the overturned cat for somewhere between 12 and 17 hours - reports have differed - looked like they had just come out of a very warm pool after a pleasant swim. Talk about being none the worse for the experience! As a result, the biggest lesson we've taken from the accident is that if you're going to flip a cat, do it in the tropics. If you're going to do it in cool or cold water, have a wetsuit or a survival suit handy.
 A still from the video of Anna's crew being rescued show Kelly Wright & Glen McConchie appearing almost as fresh as if they'd just gone for a quick swim. Photo Courtesy Forum Pacific © 2010 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc. |
There's a rumor going around Tonga that the owner of Forum Pacific, which rescued the Anna crew, fired the captain. According to the rumor, the owner is mad that the skipper, having a 50-ton crane on the Forum Pacific, didn't pick up the very valuable year-old cat. Don't bet the farm on this rumor being even remotely true. Besides, judging from the sea conditions in the YouTube video, the cat would have been bashed to pieces had they tried to lift her aboard the ship.
As it was, apparently there has been a squabble over the 'salvage' of Anna. We're betting that none of the squabbling parties know anything about salvage law - not that it tends to matter in the more remote parts of the world.
- latitude / rs