A quiet day in Valencia

I know that I am one of a number of sailing writers who have given the latest America's Cup a wide birth. If two competing squillionnaires and their giant state-of-the-art catamarans want to contest ownership of the oldest trophy in international sport in relative privacy off the coast of Valencia, that's fine. But they should not assume much interest from the rest of the world.

The lack of event-sponsor interest from business might suggest that the contestants are reviving the Corinthian spirit. Far from it. Corinthianism is founded on sportsmanship and there is nothing sporting in this latest cup challenge. As far as I can gauge from all the court hearings preceding the contest, the event has become a money-no-object willy-waving exercise between a couple of over-inflated egos that have become detached from the inclusiveness that characterises most great sporting events.

The professional teams who are sailing these yachts don't care about the personal vendettas much. They're happy to be paid to go head-to-head in a best of three encounter that, if nothing else, really does involve a battle of cutting-edge sailing technologies. In that respect it would not at all surprise me to see a bit of carnage out there. Some extreme forces are involved and it wouldn't take much to tip one of these machines at full throttle.

So it was with a sense of reluctant curiosity that I took a peak at what was happening in the first race. After all it has taken millions of dollars, umpteen court appearances and whole series of "on,off" announcements to arrive at this day. And what an anticlimax it proved to be as the first day of racing was postponed due to a lack of wind. I suppose we should have seen that coming.

Minoprio new world match racing champion

Match racing has a new world champion. New Zealander Adam Minoprio and his crew had already secured the title when they defeated Ben Ainslie's yacht in the final of the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia yesterday.

Minoprio and his ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing crew of Tom Powrie, David Swete, Nick Blackman and Dan McLean defeated a TeamOrigin boat that included triple Olympic gold medalist Ainslie on helm and double Olympic gold, Ian Percy.

Ian Williams, world champion for the previous two years, was forced to concede his title in the round robin stage when he was unable to progress to the later stages.

Ainslie - absent for part of the season - plans to do the full tour next year in order to give him a better chance of securing the world title in what has become a high quality event attracting much of the world's best match racing talent.


Monsoon Cup Results
1st Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing Team
2nd Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
3rd Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
4th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/ALL4ONE
5th Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
6th Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing
7th Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
8th Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team

Final tour Standings
1. Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 138 Points
2. Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 97 Points
3. Ben Ainslie, (GBR) Team Origin 95 Points
4. Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR 93 Points
5. Mathieu Richard (FRA), French Match Racing Team Racing 79 Points
6. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 75 Points
7. Sebastien Col, (FRA) French Match Racing Team 55 Points
8. Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 48 Points

Sailing in to trouble

Should we be alarmed that one of Andrew Pindar's two Volvo 60 boats has been seized by the Iranian authorities who say it strayed in to their territorial waters? The incident is a worry for British diplomats as it has occurred at a time of heightened international sensitivity after Iran announced an escalation of its nuclear enrichment programme.

The boat, The Kingdom of Bahrain, in Pindar's distinctive turquoise livery, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is only just over a week since Pindar launched its Sail Bahrain venture designed to promote sail racing in Bahrain in a programme similar to one developed in Oman.

The incident casts a shadow over several initiatives designed to raise the profile of sailing in the Middle East. It will re-enforce the view of Larry Ellison who had opposed a decision by America's Cup holder Alinghi to stage its forthcoming defence in the emirate, Ras al-Khaimah.

Ellison, who heads the BMW Oracle challenge for the 33rd America's Cup, had argued that the venue was too close to a dangerous region, a point that was upheld by a court in the US.

The UK's priority and that of Pindar, now, is to secure the release of the crew. If the boat, as seems the case, had been experiencing problems with its propeller, there would appear to be little justification for impounding either the boat or the crew. But as British diplomats know from bitter experience, nothing is straightforward when dealing with Iran.

Neither is this simply an issue between Britain and Iran. The fact that the boat is officially representing the Kingdom of Bahrain could complicate negotiations or possibly smooth them, depending on the standing of Bahraini/Iranian relations.

Piracy statistics, 2009

I wonder how many of us have dreamed of retiring and sailing off in to the sunset? Paul and Rachel Chandler were living that dream until their yacht, Lynn Rival, was overrun by Somali pirates. Today they yacht has been recovered by the Royal Navy but the couple continue to be held hostage.

Piracy has become a real threat for adventurous sailors who seek to take their yachts beyond the shores of Europe and North America. The Chandlers were boarded 60 miles in to a voyage from the Seychelles to the Amirante islands.

Here are some sobering statistics on piracy in 2009, compiled by former Royal Navy and Superyacht Captain, Paul Cook, speaking recently at the Superyacht Design Symposium in New York.

Total Incidents = 374

Vessels Boarded = 81

Vessels Hijacked = 39

Vessels Held in Somalia = 7

Hostages = 66

Injured = 19

Killed = 6

Missing = 8

Paul Larsen and SailRocket crash

Is this the end of the line for Paul Larsen and SailRocket's attempt to beat the world sailing speed record?

He reached a speed of 53 kts this week before the boat flipped during the run off the Namibian coast. He lost the race to top 50 kts over 500 metres when Simon McKeon broke the barrier with an average speed of 50.07 kts in March. Since then the record has fallen to the French trimaran l'Hydroptere. Larsen believes he can still go faster but is this the boat to do it? We should know soon enough as his team try to get it repaired.

Yacht of the year 2009

Sometimes something happens in life where you know a bit of the history - the hard work,the ups and the downs and the heartache mixed with the triumphs. So I knew what it meant to Philippe Falle today when the Royal Ocean Racing Club named Puma Logic as its yacht of the year.

"It's the happiest day of my life," he declared on his Facebook page. I have known Philippe for many years since we sailed together on 3Com in the 1996/97 BT Global Challenge race. I last sailed with him on Puma Logic in the Round Britain and Island Race in 2006. What a ball-breaker that was.

He's a top class sailor and really should be helming or skippering at a much higher level. But he ploughs his own furrow and for the last few years he has concentrated on a sail training business, Sailing Logic, based in Southampton, taking novice sailors and building them in to winning crews. This year Puma Logic came second in IRC overall in the RORC championship.

Recognition means everything in sailing so it's great that RORC has given the boat this thoroughly deserved accolade. I hope it's a sign of bigger things to come.

Fastnet or bust on Hugo Boss

Today I've been getting ready for my first Fastnet Race, sailing with Alex Thomson and a few other big name sailors (such as Andrew Cape with 10 Fastnets to his name) on Hugo Boss which has to be the coolest looking of all the Open 60s.

If today's stints on the pedestal grinder are anything to go by this is going to be an extreme exercise and fitness regime, well for me anyway. I suppose I needed to get trim for the holidays but there must be easier ways.

They've shown me around the interior and it's very des res with a rather fetching orange bucket for our ablutions. The form is that you take a biodegradable bag from one of the pockets, squat in the leeward cuddy, then throw the contents over the side. So now you know. The format for urination is to go over the back in light winds but to pee in the aptly named cockpit if its getting a bit rough.

Thomson is never afraid to experiment (with technology) and this year the on board novelty is live streaming film reports from the boat to his website here.

Graham Bell, former British Olympic skier turned TV presenter is broadcasting from the boat. The race starts on Sunday 9th August, when the onboard cameras will go live 10 minutes before the start at 11.50 am.

Live feeds will then follow every three hours after the start enabling Hugo Boss to share all the action live from the race course with people online (except, I hope, any cuddy action).

“We have always been able to send back video and do live interviews, but we thought it would be great to go to the next level and test the boundaries of what is possible. I hope it will give people a real insight into life on board and share the race with us,” says Thomson, Hugo Boss skipper.

The live feeds lasting at least 3 minutes will be able to be watched every 3 hours, starting at 1500 on Sunday 9th, then at 1800, 2100, 0000, 0300, 0600, 0900 and back to 1200 until the race finishes.

The cameras will also be turned on as we round the Fastnet Rock off the Southern tip of Ireland.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Fastnet disaster of 1979 when 15 racers died and a number of others in following boats.

The 300-strong fleet will feature a range of yachts from the smallest at just 30 foot to the largest at 100 foot. Hugo Boss will be lining up in the IMOCA Open 60 class against some of the best offshore sailors in the world, including Sébastien Josse, Sam Davies and Mike Sanderson.

The full IMOCA Open 60 entry list (yachts and skippers) for the Rolex Fastnet 2009 is:

Akena Vérandas - Arnaud Boissières

Team Pindar - Mike Sanderson

Artemis Ocean Racing II - Samantha Davies

Artemis Ocean Racing The Profit Hunter - Simon Clay

Aviva - Dee Caffari

BT - Sébastien Josse

Hugo Boss - Alex Thomson

Ocean of Smiles - Christophe Bullens

Pakea Bizkaia - Unai Basurko

Safran - Marc Guillemot

Toe in the Water - Steve White