Seb Col to Compete in the Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta

by Stéphanie Nadin

Some of the world's top international match race teams are set to descend on Auckland for the Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta from March 2 to 6. A mix of America's Cup experience plus rising young talent will do battle in the invitational regatta on the Waitemata Harbour.

The regatta kicks off the Auckland Festival of Sailing, which will see a crowded calendar of thrilling yacht racing through most of March.

The Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta will be run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and will take place off the Westhaven breakwater, where spectators will be able to watch the action.

Skippers who have accepted invitations to compete are: Dean Barker (NZL - Emirates Team New Zealand); Ben Ainslie (GBR - Team Origin); Francesco Bruni (ITA - Azzurra Sailing Team); Sebastien Col (FRA-GER - ALL4ONE); Karol Jablonski (POL - former Desafio Espanol); Magnus Holmberg (SWE - former Victory Challenge); Chris Dickson (NZL - former BMW ORACLE Racing); Bertrand Pacé (FRA - former BMW ORACLE Racing); Adam Minoprio (NZL - BlackMatch Racing); Torvar Mirsky (AUS - Mirsky Racing Team).

Racing will take place in identical Farr-designed MRX yachts and will comprise a double round robin, semi-final and final. Weather permitting, the semi-finals and finals will be decided by the first skipper to win three matches.

Seb Col: "it is very good to do this event before the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland, as you face more different tactical situations in small boats racing. For the afterguard, and especially for the decision making process, it will be particularly interesting for me and John Cutler to do this event in small boats with some of our key team members."

Sebastien will sail with ALL4ONE crew members John Cutler (tactician), Gilles Favennec (pit), Christian Scherrer (jib trimmer), Jean-Marie Dauris (bow) and Philippe Mourniac (mainsail trimmer for the match race event).

The Auckland Festival of Sailing comprises a series of on and off the water events. The Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta is followed by the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland (where five of the skippers from the Omega regatta will also compete) and by the BMW Sailing World Cup Final. Also part of the festival is the Auckland International Boat Show.

Sébastien Col
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron

Trans-Tasman Clash in CentrePort Wellington International Youth Match Racing Championship Final

Close racing at the CentrePort Match Racing 2010. Image copyright RPNYC.

by Matt Chan

Light southerlies on day 3 meant racing took place around the corner in Evans Bay. Another fantastic day in Wellington and perfect conditions for match racing!

Day 3 seemed to start where day 2 finished with a minor gear incident. After the first race of the day there was a minor delay as a halyards untwisted on boat 2, raising the question “How do you fix a halyard on a E6?”.

You walk up the mast... after first capsizing the little keeler, RPYNC skipper Matt Steven untangled the halyards on his boats, apparently by walking on water!

Crunch time quickly approached and just before 1pm RPNYC skippers Tim Coltman and Josh Porebski were vying for a spot in the semi finals. Coltman prevailed shortly after by winning his last 2 matches and finished second after both rounds. By this stage Matt Steven had already sewn up first place.

The other two semi finalists were Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron skipper Jordan Reece and Cruising Yacht Club of Australia skipper Will Mackenzie.

In a strange twist Matt Stevens selected fellow Wellingtonian Tim Coltman for his semi-final opponent. Doing so ensured there will be a Wellingtonian in either 1st or second and 3rd or 4th and ensured an eventual Australia - New Zealand final!

In the first semi final Matt Steven won the first match but the Wellington derby between Steven and Coltman wasn’t over. The second match was a tight race with both boats over the line at the start. There was never more than 2 boat lengths difference and the lead changed hands more than five times with Coltman ultimately leveling the series.

In the first match of the Australian series Mackenzie drew first blood and in the second match Reece sailed a tight race from start to finish to comfortably beat Mackenzie.

It was winner takes all in both semis!

The first finalist after a tight pre-start but establishing a solid cover off the startline was Steven and crew who sailed a strong conservative final match to beat fellow RPNYC skipper Tim Coltman.

The prestart in the battle of the aussies was a vigorous affair. Both boats hitting the line at pace but unfortunately Reece was early. Mackenzie beat Reece by a considerable distance after his start line indiscretion.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Skipper Will Mackenzie makes it to the final in a trans Tasman clash with RPNYC skipper Matt Steven setting the stage for a great final day tomorrow!

Results

Place Skipper RR2w-l TotalPts
1 Steven RPNYC 7-0 11
2 Coltman RPNYC 4-3 9
3 Mackenzie CYCA 4-3 9
4 Reece RSYS 3-4 9
5 Porebski RPNYC 4-3 7
6 Waterhouse RPAYC 4-3 5
7 Pooley RNZYS 2-5 4
8 Dawson RNZYS 0-7 1

Semi-Finals
Steven 2 - Coltman 1
Mackenzie 2 - Reece 1

Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club

First Entries Received for Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race

Steven Proud's Sydney38 Swish. Image copyright Andrea Francolini/Audi.

by Jennifer Crooks

Current leader of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s prestigious Blue Water Pointscore, Syd Fischer, owner of Ragamuffin, was the first to submit an entry for the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race, which starts at 12 noon on Friday 19 March.

The 213 nautical mile category 2 event is the last race in the CYCA’s seven race Blue Water Pointscore (BWPS). With one point separating Ragamuffin (15 points) and Bob Steel’s Quest (16 points) for first and second place, Fischer needs to sail a near-faultless race, finishing ahead of Quest, to win his tenth Blue Water Pointscore.

One of the early line honours favourites and defending race record holder Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki, holds fifth place in the Blue Water Pointscore. Only four points separate the top five, which all represent the CYCA.

This last race will be an exciting encounter, as the current top five battle it out to win the prestigious event.

Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas know only too well how hard it is to win the BWPS. The duo won the title in 2006/07 with their modified Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler finishing third in the last race to win the title by two points.

AFR Midnight Rambler currently sits in third place on 17 points, two behind Ragamuffin. Next best placed is Geoff Ross’ RP55 Yendys in fourth place on 18 points.

Another early entrant for the race is Steven Proud with his Sydney 38 Swish, fresh from his successful fourth overall, divisional second and Sydney 38 OD win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Both Swish and Ragamuffin have applied to enter in the IRC division as well as ORCi. Swish finished second under the new ORCi rating category; whilst Ragamuffin finished 9th. Colin Woods’ Pretty Fly III, a Cookson 50, will also race under both rating systems.

Should five of more yachts enter the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race with valid ORCi rating certificates, the CYCA will offer an ORCi division as well as IRC and PHS. The overall winner of the race will be declared using IRC.

For Steven Proud, his crew’s request to ‘do the Hobart’ was the beginning of a season campaign. “We decided as a crew that if we were going to sail the Rolex Sydney Hobart, then we had to be prepared; so we entered the Blue Water Pointscore to gain valuable offshore racing experience,” he said.

“We performed well in the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and the Rolex Sydney Hobart, so we are aiming for a strong finish to the season with this race.” Proud added.

“The Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race is a great race – it’s distance is long enough to stretch the boat’s capabilities, and the finish is nice and close to home. In last year’s race we finished first in IRC Division 3, which was much better than the 2008 race where we were forced to retire due to damage just off Norah Head.”

Swish is currently tied with Anthony Paterson’s Tow Truck for second place in the Tasman Pointscore Series (PHS Division of Blue Water Series) and Proud was looking forward to competing against the team from Tow Truck in this race.

However, Paterson, who was also running sixth in the BWPS, has recently sold his Kerr 11.3 Tow Truck to new owners who are based at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, who have renamed the boat Dump Truck.

“The boat went on the market shortly after the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The new owners took a good look at the boat when she was in Constitution Dock and made a very generous offer,” Paterson said.

“We are sad not to have finished the Blue Water Pointscore Series with the boat, but I am very happy with what we’ve been able to achieve over the last two seasons,” said Paterson, who was quick to keep the band of loyal Tow Truck followers poised as he quipped, “So stayed tuned for the next adventures of Tow Truck.”

The Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race will start at 12 noon on Friday 19 March from Sydney Harbour and take the fleet to a laid mark around 20 nautical miles east of Crowdy Head before the yachts head for Newcastle and the finish in the Hunter River.

A total of seven yachts have entered since the Notice of Race and entry forms became available on the official race website http://sydneynewcastle.cyca.com.au.

Entries close at 1700hrs, Friday 5 March 2010 and it is anticipated that a fleet of 30 yachts will take part in the third edition of the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia

IRC Al Maktoum Trophy - Great Conditions on Day One

Racing in the Al Maktoum Trophy: Team Premier. Supplied image.

by Sharon Allison

The winners of the three divisions of the IRC Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy at Dubai International Marine Club all made the same comment Thursday - that the conditions were great. Haines Waimer who won Division One sailing Team Premier, David Rostant the winner of Division Two sailing EPI Mattafix and Mikhail Rassoudov who took first place on Victoria in Division Three all said that they loved the strong shifty conditions. The average wind speed during the day was between fifteen to twenty knots with gusts of up to twenty six knots from the south making very exciting sailing conditions. Team Premier managed to stay ahead of Yo, the 2008 winner of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy, sailed by Toby O’Connell after finishing the first race behind him in second place. ‘We were unlucky on the first race,’ said the skipper of Team Premier, ‘we got a tear in our jib and we had to make some repairs, but we had a spare and managed to change it for the second race but then our spinnaker tore and blew right out. It was an expensive race but great fun,’ he added.

In division two, David Rostant on EPI Mattafix was also happy with his win crossing the finish line minutes ahead of Mike Jelfs on MACE, ‘it was a fantastic day, the wind was good and we played the wind shifts to the best of our ability,’ commented the winning skipper.

Newcomers to the racing circuit won in division three, Mikhail Rassoudov and his crew on his boat Victoria beat the young under eighteen hopefuls on Go North with Frederic Jacobs at the helm who will be dreaming tactics tonight ahead of tomorrow’s races. ‘Winds are set to strengthen over the next two days, it was great racing today, the sea was flat and the boat speed was amazing, we really enjoyed it,’ said Mikhail. Racing resumes at 11:00 Friday with three races and concludes on Saturday 27th February.


MACE. Supplied image.

Results:

Pos – Div 1 Name Skipper Points

1st Team Premier Haines Waimer 4
2nd YO Toby O’Connell 6
3rd Drilling Systems Francis Carr 8

Pos – Div 2

1st EPI Mattafix David Rostant 3
2nd MACE Mike Jelfs 6
3rd The Office Mike Lawton 9

Pos – Div 3

1st Victoria Mikhail Rassaudov 3
2nd Go North Frederic Jacobs 6
3rd DIMC 2 Conrad Scwhindt 10

Dubai International Marine Club

RC44: The RC44 is (a lot) more than just a big dinghy...

Sea Dubai. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.

by Sharon Allison

Sea Dubai Sailing Team's best result Thursday was fourth place in the last race. The race committee, with Peter Reggio in charge, ran four races altogether to start the first day of the fleet races of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy at Dubai International Marine Club, but after a brilliant first place in the match race event we really disappointed ourselves in Thursday’s fleets races.

The conditions were fantastic, strong winds with plenty of shifts to get our hands on but we were completely plagued by mistakes. We ended up in sixth place with twenty four points behind Katusha with twenty points. The second race should have been our best but we totally misjudged the shifts. We were first around the windward mark after a great start and upwind leg but we went to the left side of the course, everyone else went right and caught the best wind so we ended up finishing in sixth place.

All our starts were good but we just couldn’t get the boat speed because our tactics were bad and we ended up with two sixth places a fourth and eighth at the end of the day and not a good feeling overall. It will take time for Raimondo to understand the boat, this was his first real experience of being at the helm of the RC44; he has done a lot of big boat sailing but mostly as crew. His helming has been mostly on dinghies and although a lot of people call the RC a big dinghy, it’s a lot of boat to handle especially in strong winds. But we are a team and becoming stronger, we had a bit of a honeymoon during the match race which was nice but we need days like today to bind us together more solidly.

Congratulations to Team Aqua, they had a great day and came first overall. Artemis ripped a hole in their spinnaker in the third race which just got bigger and bigger until finally it blew out and they came last because of it but managed to come seventh at the end of the day. Stronger winds are predicted for the next two days which is going to mean some pretty exciting stuff on the water especially around the marks. Racing starts at 11:00 on Friday.

Results

Pos Teams Pts Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4
1 AQUA 6 1 2 1 2 Chris Bake / Cameron Appleton
2 Artemis 13 3 4 5 1 Torbjorn Tornqvist / Terry Hutchinson
3 CEEREF 15 2 7 3 3 Igor Lah / Rod Davis
4 No Way Back 19 4 1 7 7 Pieter Heerema / Ray Davis
5 Katusha 20 5 5 2 8 Bob Little / Paul Cayard
6 Sea Dubai 24 6 6 8 4 Raimondo Tonelli / Markus Wieser
7 Austria Team 25 8 3 9 5 René Mangold / Christian Binder
8 Islas Canarias Puerto Calero 28 7 8 4 9 Daniel Calero / José Maria Ponce
9 BMW ORACLE 30 9 9 6 6 Mike Perris / Adam Minoprio

Dubai International Marine Club
RC44

CentrePort Wellington International Youth Match Racing Championships Update on Day 3

Matt Steven walks on water! Image copyright Russell Brooking/RPNYC.

by Matt Chan

Light southerlies on day 3 so racing will be taking place around the corner in Evans Bay. The teams piled aboard Te Ruru and made their way out.


Image copyright Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.

Flight 8 complete in perfect 15 knot southerlies, gusting 20 Porebski beat Mackenzie by 37 seconds, the latter had halyard problems which didn't affect the result. In the second match Reece beat Pooley by 6 seconds after being behind at the last mark .

Currently delayed as halyards untwisted on boat 2.

Perfect conditions for match racing!

How do you fix a halyard on a E6?

You walk up the mast... after first capsizing the little keeler. Yep, Matty Steven just untangled the halyards on his boats, apparently by walking on water.


Image copyright Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.

In Flight 9, match 1, penalty against Waterhouse in the pre-start.

Flight 9, Mackenzie beat Waterhouse by 15 seconds. In the first local derby of the day, Steven beat Coltman off the line and sailed away to a 26 second win.


Image copyright Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.

Flight 10, no prestart issues. In match 1 Steve beat Waterhouse by 43 seconds, leading from start to finish. In a clean match, Coltman beat Mackenzie by 11 seconds.

Flight 11, clean starts all round. Reece beat Dawson by 43 seconds leading from start to finish . Steven beat Porebski by 17 seconds who picked up an on course penalty.


Image copyright Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.

Flight 12, once again clean starts all around. Steven blew Reece away cleanly by 42 seconds, Porebski beat Dawson in a similar fashion by 1 minute 36 seconds. Dawson experienced kite problems down the first run.

Flight 13 includes an important match for Coltman. He must win one of the last two to make the semis and if wins both will finish second. Steven is the clear winner. Mackenzie and Reece also in with a chance.

Porebski will go through if Coltman loses both.


Image copyright Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.

Flight 13, clean starts with Coltman holding slight advantage over Pooley at the start and ahead at first cross.

Note from SailRaceWin: Matt Steven (RPNYC) has won Round Robin 2 with a win-loss record of 7-0. Mackenzie (CYCA) finishes RR2 on 5-2. This gives them 12 and 10 points combined, respectively. Reece (RSYS) has dropped on RR2, winning only 2 matches out of 6 so far, to add to the six points he obtained from winning RR1, making a total of 8 points at present.

It is the combined total of points from the two round robins that will determine the top four to go through to the semi-finals. Wellingtonian Matt Steven has secured his place in the semis.

Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club

Aussie 18 Foot Skiffs: Video of the J.J. Giltinan Championships 2010

Race 7 - Final Race - Gotta Love It 7 wins



Aussie 18 Footers League