Today’s Photo of the Day is of Bonnie Fraik
trimming the plastic Christmas tree aboard Impulse, the
SC 52 she and husband Bob have in Mexico. It hasn’t seemed much
like Christmas in Banderas Bay the last week, with evening heat
so stifling it was almost impossible to sleep without a fan directed
right at your face. Even Santa was noticed walking around in
a ‘banana sling’ rather than a red suit. Fortunately, things
are starting to cool down.
Photo Latitude/Richard
Oracle BMW Finally Loses a Race
December 10 – Auckland, NZ
Drama marked the opening races of the Louis
Vuitton Cup semi-final in Auckland today, with lead changes and
broken equipment providing plenty of excitement as the yachts
raced in southwesterly breezes of 16-20 knots.
Alinghi’s SUI-64 Photo Bob Grieser/Louis Vuitton Cup
As expected, the clash between Oracle BMW
Racing (USA-76) and Alinghi (SUI-64) provided a highly charged
pre-start, full of action and aggression. Peter Holmberg, steering
USA-76, gained a slight advantage off the line, but Russell Coutts
at the helm of SUI-64 had the right-hand side and used it to
advantage. Soon after the start, the Swiss team gained the edge
and then sailed a classic match race, relentlessly covering and
playing the windshifts to slowly extend to a comfortable lead
– ending the 11-race winning streak enjoyed by USA-76 since Chris
Dickson took over the skipper’s role. The margin of victory was
1 minute, 11 seconds. Oracle BMW now trails 1-0 in the best of
seven series. If Oracle BMW were to lose, they’d have a match
with the winner of OneWorld and Prada to see who races against
Alinghi.
In the match between Luna Rossa (ITA-74)
and OneWorld (USA-67), the Italian yacht, skippered by Francesco
de Angelis, gained the upper hand in the start. But, a pattern
soon emerged where OneWorld, helmed by James Spithill, had better
speed upwind and Prada had the pace downwind. The lead changed
five times during the race. Prada’s de Angelis drove hard downwind,
working the boat down every wave trying to gain every ounce of
speed. Drama struck on the second downwind leg when Prada luffed
OneWorld and broke their spinnaker pole in the process. OneWorld
powered into the lead and extended up the third windward leg,
only to break its spinnaker on the final run. Prada closed up,
but not enough to threaten the American yacht. Weather permitting,
there’ll be more racing today. For details, visit www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com.
Yacht Abandoned During Atlantic Rally
for Cruisers
December 10 – Atlantic Ocean
Peter and Zara Davies of the Plymouth,
England, based Hunter Legend 450 F2 have abandoned their
boat following rudder problems. On December 1, they’d lost their
rudder in big seas that had been characteristic of this year’s
ARC. Fortunately, a jury rig rudder was put together by the crew
of Tenacious, which allowed F2 to continue to St.
Lucia. Alas, Sunday night the jury rudder failed also, leaving
the boat without steering. Much worse, she was taking on water
nearly 1,000 miles from shore. ARC organizers directed the yachts Lorrigray II, Muskrat, and Toutazimut to stand
by. Eventually, the Davies, along with their German shepherd
Ellie, evacuated the boat in an orderly fashion and joined Lorrigray
II, a Dix 65 from South Africa.
Diadem, a Catana 582 hailing from Germany,
arrives in St. Lucia, finishing the ARC. Photo Tim Wright/Photo Action
In other ARC news, Mark and David Bernhard’s
Northern California-based Catana 581 cat is believed to have
finished in the top 15% of the fleet, despite sailing with youngsters
and having lost half their chutes within the first half hour
of setting one. More tomorrow.
The Uncertain Future of Balls-to-the-Wall
Around-the-World Crewed Racing
December 10 – Planet Earth
These are crucial times for what the foreseeable
future of crewed around-the-world sailboat racing will look like.
The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread, had always been
the premiere around-the-world crewed event, and made international
superstars out of the last two winning skippers, Paul Cayard
and John Kostecki, both of Northern California. But despite protestations
to the opposite by Volvo, the last Volvo was seen as something
of a disappointment, both in the number of entries and in garnering
attention. As Volvo makes plans for the next race in the winter
of 2005/2006, it’s uncertain whether they will go to bigger boats
or a slightly different course to try to gain more publicity.
The Volvo 60 illbruck
Photo Courtesy Volvo Ocean Race
Meanwhile, Bruno Peyron of France, who
put together The Race, the around-the-world event for maxi multihulls
two years ago, used the Paris Boat Show to announce two around-the-world
multihull events that would be in direct conflict with the Volvo.
The events include a second running of The Race, to be held in
2004, and a Race Tour, an around-the-world race with stops, to
be held every four years starting in 2005/06.
Club Med in The Race Photo Courtesy Club Med
What makes the future unclear is that Volvo
has all the money, clout, and skills to put together a great
event, but Peyron’s proposed Race Tour has much more appeal to
the prime competitors from recent Whitbreads and the last VOR.
Specifically, superstars such as John Kostecki, Paul Cayard,
Grant Dalton, Neal MacDonald, Ross Field, and Roger Nilson are
reported to be more interested in doing the Race Tour rather
than another Volvo. Why? The big multihulls are faster than the
Volvo monohulls, they are more fun to sail, and they seem to
inherently attract more attention. This the opinion of sailors
such as Nilson, who have raced around the world on both the Volvos
and the maxi cats. It’s noteworthy that Ellen MacArthur, the
most bankable sailor – male or female – in the world today, has
done her last race with her Open 60 monohull Kingfisher,
and has taken delivery of the 110-ft maxi cat Kingfisher2,
formerly Orange, and will soon be going after the Jules
Verne around-the-world record.
Nilson thinks it would be great if Volvo’s
money and Peyron’s superior vision could be combined in one great
event. The fact that this is a no-brainer of a great idea doesn’t
mean it’s going to happen. Even though Volvo officials have reportedly
acknowledged that at some time in the future they will probably
have to go to multihulls, they don’t want to do it now, and rebuffed
an appeal by Peyron, with Nilson’s help, to join forces. One
problem is that Volvo is very conservative, and just last month
15 of 18 multihulls were destroyed, damaged, or flipped in the
Route du Rhum.
YOTREPS
December 10 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace
Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS –
‘yacht reports’ – at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps.
Looking for current as well as recent wind
and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena
and the Mexican border? Here’s the place – which has further
links to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southwest.shtml.
Pacific Winds and Pressure
The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology
page posts a daily
map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.
