Latest news
Historic yacht race departs from Portimao, Portugal
@ Mon Oct 13 11:42:00 +0100 2008
The Portimão Global Ocean Race, Portugal’s first ever around-the-world yacht race set sail at 13:00GMT today.
Germany’s Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme were first across the start line.
Belgium’s Michel Kleinjans was first to the mandatory waypoint at cape Sagres.
The inaugural Portimão Global Ocean Race got underway today from the seaside town of Portimão, Portugal. Portimão’s Deputy Mayor Luis Carito fired the start gun at precisely 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and Germany’s young rising stars Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme charged across the line in first place aboard their Class 40 yacht Beluga Racer. They set a Code 0 sail and in the light south-easterly wind romped into an early lead. Moments later the brightly colored Desafio Cabo de Hornos helmed by Chileans Felipe Cubillos and José Muñoz crossed the line in second place followed by the South African team of Lenjohn and Peter Van Der Wel aboard Kazimir Partners.
The Portimão Global Ocean Race is the first ever around-the-world yacht race to originate from Portugal and also marks the first time that both solo and double-handed teams are competing on the same global racecourse. “This is truly a historic moment for sailing and for Portugal,” said Brian Hancock, who, along with Josh Hall co-founded the event and presented the idea to the Câmara Municipal de Portimão in 2007. Portimão is a city of events and the Portimão Global Ocean Race is their first global event.
The first mark of the 30,000 nautical mile course was a compulsory gate one mile south of the stunning cape of Sagres on Portugal’s Algarve coast. “The idea of the gate was two-fold,” said Josh Hall. “For a mariner passing their first cape on a passage is always a big moment. Sagres is their first cape, but not their last. They will have to pass the big five southern capes before they get back to Portugal next June.”
Just over three hours into the race the Belgium skipper Michel Kleinjans on his Open 40, Roaring Forty, passed south of the famous cape followed eight minutes later by Beluga racer. The British yacht Team Mowgli had moved up into third with Desafio Cabo de Hornos a scant two minutes behind.
The first yachts are expected to reach Cape Town, South Africa by November 15.
Image by Ingrid Abery / Hot Capers
Final day of the Audi MedCup, Cagliari, Sardinia
Hot Capers @ Sat Jul 05 17:36:00 +0100 2008
The American boat Quantum Racing steered by Terry Hutchinson with Americans Morgan Larson and Mark Mendelblatt lead a great team performance to win the Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy and lead the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008 at the mid-way point of the season.
One year ago this week Terry Hutchinson (USA) was a key member of the Emirates Team New Zealand crew which had only just narrowly lost the 32nd America’s Cup match against Alinghi.
Today off the Sardinian capital of Cagliari, Hutchinson and his team aboard Quantum Racing (USA) won a regatta of the 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit for the first time, lifting the Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy,
Quantum finished third in Alicante in May and fifth in Marseille last month and now, at the theoretical mid-point of the six regatta season, after 26 races the American boat tops the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008 standings.
A great, but intense final day of racing took full advantage of the continuing Mistral winds, blowing between 13-17 knots. An early morning start allowed three sharp windward-leeward to be completed by early afternoon.
It was only on the final run of the final race that Hutchinson and the Quantum Racing crew did just enough to beat Mean Machine (MON), Peter de Ridder’s 2006 champion team, who are guided tactically by Hutchinson’s former key crew-mates ETNZ tactician Ray Davies (NZL), along with navigator Kevin Hall (USA).
At the final windward mark of the regatta’s deciding 10th race, Quantum Racing and Mean Machine sat locked together on the same points aggregate, and only by passing Spain’s America’s Cup Team on El Desafio and Matador (ARG) did Quantum Racing emerge triumphant by two clear points.
With Hutchinson steering, Morgan Larson (USA) as tactician and Athens Olympian Mark Mendelblatt (USA) helping out for the first time as strategist and ‘guest’grinder, Quantum Racing won four of the 10 races and never finished worse than sixth.
Sweden’s Artemis, the defending 2007 MedCup Champion finished with a flourish today with a third and two first places to finish third overall at the regatta.
But for hitting the windward mark first time up in the first race, which required a penalty turn, then, second time round, taking a another, Artemis might have made it a final day hat-trick. Even after their first penalty they regained the lead by the second windward mark before their second transgression.
Quantum set their stall for the day out by winning the first race, starting off the left, pin-end of the line. Artemis passed them again on the second beat, but Hutchinson and crew were able to capitalise when the Swedish boat had to make their turns.
In the second race Quantum could only make a sixth when they lost two boats on the final, puffy, shifty run, but the pendulum swung back on the final race when they were able to finish fourth to Mean Machine’s third.
Quantum Racing, the only new 2008 Botin & Carkeek design in the TP52 MedFleet and the only boat using Quantum Sails, now leads the 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit by 6.2 points ahead of Jose Cusi’s Bribón (ESP) which lead when the Circuit arrived here for the first time ever in Sardinia, last weekend, while Artemis now lies third 7.8 points behind Bribón.
The Gulf of Cagliari has offered the Audi MedCup Circuit fleet a great test across a broad range of conditions, from modest sea breezes for Thursday’s 32 mile coastal race, to 30 knots of Mistral which limited competition to just one race on Friday. Today, racing up in the north of the bay in the offshore breeze there were plenty of wind shifts and small puffs and gusts to satisfy the needs of the tacticians.
“ I am a little relieved.“ smiled Hutchinson when asked about their win, “You have to take your hats off to the Mean Machine guys, they kept fighting after the first race, they did nice work in the second and in the third, as did we. Everything that we worked on prior to the regatta has been better here. Out starting was better, our boat was going faster, we are slowly improving our equipment and our sails, to a point where it is very nice, and the faster you get the easier it gets. I think we have to keep working hard at getting more out of our boat.”
“ It has been a really good test, but we still leave stuff on the table, and so the good news too is that we can still get better as well. I think everyone can enjoy this win for what it’s worth for a day or two, but there is still 30 races or whatever it is, and so we are only about half way there.”
And of the comparisons with last year’s Cup and the fact that he and Mark Mendelblatt, and Ian Moore (GBR, who was navigator on the ETNZ B boat) are on Quantum, helm Dean Barker is on the steering wheels for Bribon and Ray Davies is on tactics and Kevin Hall (USA) for Mean Machine, Hutchinson continues:
“ Today it is fun to be talking to Deano (Dean Barker, NZL, former Team New Zealand helm) because a year ago we were all in such a much different environment and so I can promise you that the stresses of this don’t come close to comparing to the stresses of that, so it is always nice to be out there racing. The amazing thing here is that the after guard of Team New Zealand is pretty well represented. It is really good. And I am really happy for the guys at Quantum, they have invested a massive amount into our programme and the guys support us with our sails, day in day out, fine tuning our sail shapes, learning from our competitors, learning about our boat, picking things that we like and making our sails better.”
“ I think our strengths with the boat now are that is does not have not any real weaknesses. Sometimes we will not go so well downwind but we will go really well upwind, and I think that we can still sail better. So I think that it is hard for us to look at the boat and say it has any real weaknesses at the moment.”
Tom Dodson (NZL), strategist on Mean Machine, second overall at the Audi Region of Sardinia Regatta, and lying fourth overall on the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008, said:
“ For us it’s a hard regatta to analyse too deeply, because we came here with a policy after the last regatta and even after the practice race to try and just take the double bogey option out of the equation for ourselves. So on this track we had here that meant often starting at the non-favored end of the line and relying on our pretty quick boat speed and handling to get up to the second or third or that sort of places where we seemed to hang around. And I’d say we were unlucky in that it was one way tracks a lot of the time and there was not a lot of bias on the start lines to compensate for that. But on the other hand we were probably quite lucky that when we were on the other side, that did not translate into last place and so I don’t think any other boat or crew could have taken that option.”
Juan Meseguer (ESP), trimmer with Artemis (SWE), third overall on the Circuit and at the regatta:
“ Today was a good day for us. Nothing is really different for us today. We got the wind shifts better, and whoever was playing the wind shifts better won the regatta. Some times today it was left and some times it was right and so you just had to be patient. I think we were risky in the third race but it worked. And on the whole circuit with 50% of the Circuit done, being third and not far away from the top two, there are still plenty of boats who can win this Circuit, and I still think there are a lot of things can happen.”
FINAL RESULTS:Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy Regatta.
(Positions, Boat, Nation, R1, R2, R3,R4,R5,R6A,R6B,R7,R8,R9,R10, total points)
1. Quantum Racing USA (3,1,6, 1,1,5,4,5,1,6,4,37)
2. Mean Machine MON (1,4,1,2,3,6,6,7,4,2,3, 39)
3 .Artemis SWE (9,5,4,5,7,4,5,1,3,1,1, 45)
4. Mutua Madrileña ESP (2,11,7,8,4,1,1,3,2,8,2,49)
5. Bribón ESP (4,2,5, 7,11,2,2,6,6,3,7, 55)
6. El Desafío ESP (6, 7, 11,3,6,7,7,4,5,10,6, 72)
7. Matador ARG (7,8,3,6,8,10,10,2,12,4,5, 75)
8. Caixa Galicia ESP (12,9,9,10,2,3,3,14,11,5,8,86)
9. Platoon by Team Germany GER (5,10,8,9,5,9,9,10,10,7,9,91)
10. Cristabella GBR (10,6,12,11,9,8,9,7,11,10, 101)
Breitling Trophy for the best Elapsed Total Time at the regatta: Quantum Racing.
Audi MedCup Circuit 2008
Standings after 26 races in Alicante, Marseille, Cagliari.
1. Quantum Racing USA 129
2. Bribón ESP 135,2
3. Artemis SWE 137
4. Mean Machine MON 158
5. Platoon by Team Germany GER 190
6. Matador ARG 192
7. Mutua Madrileña ESP 200,4
8. El Desafío ESP 207
9. CxG Caixa Galicia ESP 232,6
10. Cristabella GBR 26
TP52 Audi MedCup Sardinia
Hot Capers @ Fri Jul 04 15:09:00 +0100 2008
While Italy’s Vasco Vascotto and the crew of Mutua Madrileña (CHI) scored themselves a morale boosting pair of victories around today’s 32.7 miles, two-part coastal race into the Gulf of Angels, the bay immediately to the east of Cagliari, it was the steady perfomance of Quantum Racing (USA) which sees them at the top of both the overall leader-board for this Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy and the season long Audi MedCup Circuit.
Quantum Racing were fifth in the first section of the race and then managed to overhaul Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis (SWE) on an exciting last couple of miles to the finish, and steal the fourth place which was enough to give them a two points lead in the regatta ahead of Mean Machine (MON) and a wafer thin 0.2 point lead on the Audi MedCup Circuit.
But Jose Cusi’s Bribon (ESP) had a good day too, with two second places to atone for a slightly disappointing Wednesday.
With Flavio Favini (ITA) steering and skipper Vascotto on tactics, Mutua Madrileña converted their preference for the left side of the three mile first beat to a lead of 24 seconds over Jose Cusi’s (ESP) Bribon at the first mark.
Mutua Madrileña took the best spot at the pin-end, leftextremity of the start line along with Bribon.
By comparison Platoon powered by Team Germany (GER) steered by three times Olympic gold medallist Jochen Schuemann (GER) started perfectly at the opposite, committee boat end and ploughed the best right side furrow to round ninth, already five minutes behind the runaway duo Mutua Madrileña and Bribon.
With the early breeze remaining light, 6-8 knots for most of the first ten or twelve miles, it was only on the five miles beat from the Poetto leeward buoy in the Gulf of Angels out to the scoring gate, that the sea breeze started to flex its muscles a little more, rising to 11-12 knots at times.
But it was largely on that first, opening beat when the shape of the race was really set, and even by the first mark there was already 8 minutes and 20 seconds – a lifetime in the usual scheme of TP52 racing – between Mutua Madrileña and the 13th placed boat.
Another team enjoying a return to confident mood are CXG Caixa Galicia (ESP), who in their borrowed, substitute boat (the 2007 championship winning Artemis) took third in both sections today, behind Bribon to neatly complement their second place in Race 5.
Today’s were the best results yet this season for Vascotto and his team, many of whom were with him when they won the first MedCup season in 2005, and – he says – confirms they are improving all the time with their new boat. Their season to date has not been straightforward after they broke their masthead crane just before the start of the first regatta, impairing their tuning and training. Then in Marseille, their regatta ended prematurely when their hull sustained damage at the first mark of the Coastal Race.
ed-Audi MedCup media
|
