Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Releases its Internal Inquiry Report

by Jennifer Crooks

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has made public today the internal inquiry report commissioned by the Club following the incident which occurred early morning 10 October 2009 in the vicinity of Flinders Islet off the coast of Port Kembla, resulting in the deaths of Andrew Short and Sally Gordon.

Following the establishment of the Terms of Reference, the committee tasked with the internal inquiry presented their final report to the CYCA board which has now approved the recommendations made.

In a statement made to members of the CYCA, Commodore Matt Allen highlighted a number of recommendations made by the Flinders Islet Inquiry Committee have already been implemented following the release of an interim report prior to the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

He also emphasised to members the official investigation being conducted by the NSW Police Force for the NSW State Coroner which was yet to be finalised, although it is understood the investigation is nearing its completion.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has shared its internal inquiry report with a number of interested parties, including the families of Andrew Short and Sally Gordon, NSW Police conducting the official investigation, NSW Maritime, Marine Rescue NSW, Yachting Australia, Yachting NSW and yacht clubs around the country that share similar ocean yacht racing objectives.

The report* can be found at the CYCA website via the following link http://www.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=4683

*This is an internal Cruising Yacht Club of Australia report based on the Terms of Reference established by the CYCA in November 2009. Please note this is not the report being prepared by the NSW Police for the NSW State Coroner.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia

RC44: Images of the Match Racing in Dubai

Adam Minoprio (NZL) at the helm of BMW ORACLE Racing (USA). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Aqua (UAE) against Team Katusha (RUS). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Artemis (SWE) against Team Austria (AUT). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


RC44 fleet in Dubai. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Katusha (RUS), Team CEEREF (SLO) and BMW ORACLE Racing (USA). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team CEEREF (SLO) against Team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Artemis (SWE) against Team Sea Dubai (UAE). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Katusha (RUS) against BMW ORACLE Racing (USA). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his team on board BMW ORACLE Racing (USA). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Katusha (RUS) skippered by Paul Cayard (USA). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team CEEREF (SLO) against Team Sea Dubai (UAE). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.


Team Artemis (SWE) skippered by Terry Hutchinson (USA). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.

RC44

RC44: Ambitious Team Sea Dubai take the Match Racing in Dubai

Adam Minoprio vs. Markus Wieser. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.

by Sharon Allison

Sea Dubai scooped the top match-racing prize today for the first time in their third season of racing in the class. The win was made particularly sweet by being the season opener, on home ground and so convincing after taking top place in seven out of their eight matches. Last season the team had mixed fortunes where they performed some stunning racing and amazing tactics but were let down by inconsistency and lack of confidence made them unreliable but ambitious.

They had two matches today the first against Puerto Calero Islas Canarias where Sea Dubai managed to come from behind to win and the second against BMW Oracle, which didn’t go so well, and Sea Dubai lost their only match to Adam Minoprio's BlackMatch Racing team on the American boat.


Markus Wieser at the helm of Sea Dubai. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.

‘To start the season on such a high like this is amazing,’ said Markus Wieser, the match-racing skipper of Sea Dubai. ‘We knew we could do it and thought we may be able to come 4th or 5th and now we are all a little bit surprised at how well we’ve performed this time. In the races today we were very conscious not to make any mistakes or cause any damage where we could lose precious points. We are absolutely knocked out with a first place result,’ he said.


José Maria Ponce vs. Markus Wieser. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.

Tomorrow it is the turn of Raimondo Tonelli at the helm for the fleet racing. He is new to the team and only stepped on the boat just over a week ago. Whether he feels more pressure after todays win or less he is not sure but either way there is pressure. Hailing from Lake Garda in Italy where the wind can blow hard early in the morning he might find the conditions suit him this weekend, but as he’s more used to the foil sailing of a moth we will have to wait and see. The rest of the team are on good form and completely focused to go in to the fleet race looking for more good results.

Racing starts at 11:30 for the next three days ending on Saturday 27th February when the boats will be packed up quickly and moved to Jebel Ali port to be shipped back to Europe for the next round in Lake Traunsee in Austria in April.

Results:
Pos Name MR Skipper FL Skipper/Owner Points
1st Sea Dubai Markus Wieser Raimondo Tonelli 7
2nd No Way Back Ray Davies Pieter Heerema 5
3rd Artemis Terry Hutchinson Torbjorn Tornqvist 5
4th Cereef Rod Davis Igor Lah 4
5th BMW Oracle Adam Minporo Mike Perris 4
6th Puerto Calero Jose Maria Ponce Daniel Calero 3
7th Aqua Cameron Appleton Chris Bake 3
8th Katusha Paul Cayard Bob Little 3
9th Austria Christian Binder Rene Mangold 2

Dubai International Marine Club

RC44: Paul Cayard reports from Katusha on the last day of match racing in Dubai

by Paul Cayard

Another tough day for Katusha. We only had one race today and we lost it. Actually, I lost it right at the start. I turned up for line too early and we got locked out at the committee boat end. That was the race. We kept it close but Aqua was always safely in control.

I hate to lose but I really hate handing it to people on a silver platter.
The cost of losing that one race, was the difference between 4th overall and 8th place.

It will take me a while to put this regatta out of my mind.

Sea Dubai went on to win which is great for our hosts. No Way Back finished strong in second and our team mates on Artemis were 3rd.

Tomorrow, we start the fleet racing portion of the event. Bob Little, aka Peaches, will be steering and I will be tactician. The rest of the team is the same.

We had the practice race for fleet racing today. We had an ok start but rounded the first mark 6th. Down the first run we lost one boat and rounded 7th at the bottom.

But up the second windward leg we went right and passed a few boats to round 4th, then passed one more to finish 3rd. So that made us feel a bit better.

The winds were very light and fickle, under 6 knots all day.

Tomorrow's forecast is for a southerly wind, quite strong, in the morning the fading late morning/early afternoon with a sea breeze building late afternoon.

Cayard Sailing
RC44

RC44: A job well done for Team Sea Dubai

Markus Wieser and his team from the United Arab Emirates win the match race title of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44, ahead of No Way Back (NED) and Artemis (SWE)


Team No Way Back, with Pieter Heerema and Ray Davies at the helm, finishes second in the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy match race behind Team Sea Dubai. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44.

by Bernard Schopfer

Unbeaten after seven flights, Markus Wieser and his Team Sea Dubai only had to avoid a penalising collision today to win the match race title of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy. That’s what they did, winning in the mean time a difficult race against Puerto Calero and losing the last one to BMW ORACLE Racing.

However, the real action was behind, in a tough contest between six teams for the second and third places overall. Leader of this “secondary ranking” ahead of the last day, Terry Hutchinson’s Artemis - rejoined today by owner Torbjorn Tornqvist - started in the worse possible way by losing the first race to Team Austria. Pushed to the right of the course during the first beat, the Austrians seemed to benefit from a better pressure: they took the lead and increased it slightly throughout the match.

The points were particularly precious at this stage, and No Way Back went from a potentially difficult situation – loosing their start against Team Aqua – to a sudden solid option on the overall ranking’s second place when they overtook Cameron Appleton’s Team Aqua during the first downwind leg. Rod Davis (Ceeref) also won an important point against BMW ORACLE Racing, rejoining Artemis and No Way Back in the group of candidates to second overall ahead of the last race.

Sailing the last race against Islas Canarias Puerto Calero, Pieter Heerema and Ray Davies - joint helmsmen onboard No Way Back - managed to block the Spaniards on the wrong start of the Committee boat at the moment of the start. Team Aqua did the same to Katusha five minutes later. Observing this, Rod Davis obviously liked the idea and tried to inflict the same fate to Artemis; however the trick didn’t quite work and Terry Hutchinson just managed to squeeze in between the Committee boat and Ceeref’s bow whilst Davis remained stuck head to the wind during long, long seconds, finally crossing the line one minute late.

No Way Back and Artemis finish the event on a tie, however the Dutch team gets the second rank overall thanks to their victory in the direct confrontation. Ceeref finishes fourth on a tie with BMW ORACLE Racing.

Match-race, final results after nine flights:

(Ranking, name of team, helmsman, No. of victories/defeats, points)

1) Team Sea Dubai (Markus Wieser), 8/1, 8 points
2) Team No Way Back (Pieter Heerema/Ray Davies), 5/3, 5 points
3) Artemis (Terry Hutchinson), 5/3, 5 points
4) CEEREF (Rod Davis), 4/5, 4 points
5) BMW ORACLE Racing (Adam Minoprio), 4/5, 4 points
6) Team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (José Maria Ponce), 3/6, 3 points
7) Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton), 3/6, 3 points
8) Katusha (Paul Cayard), 3/6, 3 points
9) Team Austria (Christian Binder), 2/7, 2 points

RC44

JVT: Groupama 3 Carried along by the swell...

Franck Cammas at the helm of Groupama 3. Image copyright Team Groupama.

by Vincent Borde and Caroline Muller

On track to pass between New Zealand and Auckland Island, Franck Cammas and his nine crew have eased off the throttle slightly to negotiate a slightly more chaotic sea. After picking up the record for the Indian Ocean crossing on Wednesday morning (8d 17h 39'), Groupama 3 is plunging towards the SE, regularly extending her lead over the reference time.

There is not a lot at the entrance to the Pacific Ocean, though there is a swell... A fine W'ly swell which is enabling Groupama 3 to continue to lengthen her stride, pushed by a twenty-five knot SW'ly wind. The climate is still mild and (at last) there is a seascape to contemplate as the clouds have given way to a starry sky.

"We don't need to push the boat too hard because it would serve no purpose to be too quick due to the weather situation which awaits us over the next few days. In addition, the seas aren't very organised following the wind shift and we're sailing with one reef in the mainsail and small gennaker" said Franck Cammas at the 1130 UTC radio link-up with Groupama's Race HQ in Paris.

A record along the way

Naturally the skipper of Groupama 3 was happy to have broken their first WSSRC record on this Jules Verne Trophy (from the Agulhas Cape to the South of Tasmania: 8d 18h 39'). Most important of all though is the 200 mile lead the crew are boasting at the entrance to the Pacific, which has resulted in them tracking nearly half a day ahead of Orange 2's course. The midway point of this round the world has also been crossed this Wednesday, at around 0630 UTC, which means that Franck Cammas and his men are closing inexorably on the finish now...

"This record for the Indian Ocean crossing is a great surprise: Groupama 3 is a boat which isn't supposed to be quicker on this particular section of the course. However, the weather did favour us for two thirds of that ocean... However, we've got to get to Cape Horn yet and it's a long old haul!"

With twenty-five knots of W to SW'ly breeze, Franck Cammas and his nine crew will stay behind a low for several days as it fills, but it will remain ahead of the giant trimaran. In addition a front is trailing them at the moment, which is causing the NW'ly winds to rotate. As such conditions are favourable for making headway on more organised seas, pushed along by this new downwind breeze throughout a large chunk of the Pacific Ocean.

Approaching New Zealand

"Since we gybed, the sailing conditions have been harsher: we're behind a front but at least the skies have cleared with a few squalls, a beautiful moon and a starry vault. The temperatures are mild and it's pleasant: there are some stunning lights in the sky. It makes a nice change from the grey that has coloured the past few days, though it's still night here... The sea is a bit messy due to a depression generating E'ly wind over the zone a couple of days ago: the seas are still steep and though they're not very high, they are chaotic. We're taking care not to put too much pressure on our steed..."

Once round New Zealand, the first section of the Pacific promises to be relatively mild, even though there are a few icebergs quite far North. Fortunately Groupama 3 should be able to leave them to port and slip along beneath them. With the sea temperature remaining fairly warm, there is a decreased risk of encountering such phenomena, especially as Franck Cammas and his men have requested satellite images of the danger zones along the scheduled route towards Cape Horn, between 53° and 54° South.

Groupama 3's log (departure on 31st January at 13h 55' 53'' UTC)
Day 1 (1st February 1400 UTC): 500 miles (deficit = 94 miles)
Day 2 (2nd February 1400 UTC): 560 miles (lead = 3.5 miles)
Day 3 (3rd February 1400 UTC): 535 miles (lead = 170 miles)
Day 4 (4th February 1400 UTC): 565 miles (lead = 245 miles)
Day 5 (5th February 1400 UTC): 656 miles (lead = 562 miles)
Day 6 (6th February 1400 UTC): 456 miles (lead = 620 miles)
Day 7 (7th February 1400 UTC): 430 miles (lead = 539 miles)
Day 8 (8th February 1400 UTC): 305 miles (lead = 456 miles)
Day 9 (9th February 1400 UTC): 436 miles (lead = 393 miles)
Day 10 (10th February 1400 UTC): 355 miles (lead = 272 miles)
Day 11 (11th February 1400 UTC): 267 miles (deficit = 30 miles)
Day 12 (12th February 1400 UTC): 247 miles (deficit = 385 miles)
Day 13 (13th February 1400 UTC): 719 miles (deficit = 347 miles)
Day 14 (14th February 1400 UTC): 680 miles (deficit = 288 miles)
Day 15 (15th February 1400 UTC): 651 miles (deficit = 203 miles)
Day 16 (16th February 1400 UTC): 322 miles (deficit = 376 miles)
Day 17 (17th February 1400 UTC): 425 miles (deficit = 338 miles)
Day 18 (18th February 1400 UTC): 362 miles (deficit = 433 miles)
Day 19 (19th February 1400 UTC): 726 miles (deficit = 234 miles)
Day 20 (20th February 1400 UTC): 672 miles (deficit = 211 miles)
Day 21 (21th February 1400 UTC): 584 miles (deficit = 124 miles)
Day 22 (22nd February 1400 UTC): 607 miles (deficit = 137 miles)
Day 23 (23rd February 1400 UTC): 702 miles (lead = 60 miles)
Day 24 (24th February 1400 UTC): 638 miles (lead = 208 miles)

WSSRC record for the Pacific Ocean crossing (from the South of Tasmania to Cape Horn)
Orange 2 (2005): 8d 18h 08'

Cammas - Groupama

LVT: Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland Attracts America's Cup Challenger of Record

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, the recently-annointed Italian Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup, joins seven other Cup contenders in Auckland next month to race on New Zealand's Waitemata Harbor for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland




Italy's Azzurra crew arrives dockside at the race village after winning the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d'Azur, on a Mascalzone Latino boat. Image copyright Frank Socha/Louis Vuitton Trophy, Nice Côte d'Azur.

by Bruno Troublé

Inspired by last year’s Louis Vuitton Pacific Series and sailed in former America’s Cup boats, the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland is the second of five match race regattas. In France last November the Italian team Azzurra led by Francesco Bruni won the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, defeating the favorite Emirates Team New Zealand and its skipper Dean Barker 2-0. Both teams are part of the eight-syndicate entry for Auckland.

The only syndicate from last year, other than Emirates Team New Zealand, is Great Britain’s TEAMORIGIN, skippered by four-time Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie.

Four new teams are coming, all with familiar faces and powerful credentials. All four teams made their debuts in Nice. The French ALEPH Sailing Team is skippered by Bertrand Pacé. All4One is a combined French/German team with skipper Jochen Schümann. Artemis, from Sweden, has Paul Cayard as skipper. Russia’s Synergy Russian Sailing Team is skippered by Karol Jablonski.

Part of the Auckland Festival of Sail organized by Emirates Team New Zealand, the Louis Vuitton event will overlap with the Auckland International Boat Show. The two Cup boats will dock in the heart of the Viaduct Basin on the quayside adjacent to Aucklanders’ favourite restaurants and wine bars, providing an unprecedented opportunity for spectators to view boat preparation and the departures and arrivals of the teams each day.

Racing will follow the format established in Auckland last year and adopted for competition in Nice last November. Racing starts Tuesday, 9th March. Teams will take turns racing the two boats in four matches a day to complete a round robin seeding series before a ladder elimination culminating in the finals on Sunday, 21st March.

Preparations are well under way to host the top tier professional sailors. The two Emirates Team New Zealand yachts NZL 84 And NZL 92 have been fitted out, optimized and rigged after a year in storage. They set out yesterday on their first shake-down sail.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland is organised in association with the New Zealand Government, Auckland City, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, New Zealand Tourism, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, TVNZ, Audi New Zealand and Emirates Team New Zealand.

Louis Vuitton Trophy