Seb Josse and his all-star team, including celebrity guests Dame Ellen MacArthur and Radio 1 DJ, Rob Da Bank have won the Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week.  On an east-bound course, the fleet set off at 10:00 from the Royal Yacht Squadron line on a downwind leg flying their huge code zero gennakers. Mike Sanderson and team, including celebrity guest Paul Rose (TV presenter and adventurer), led off the startline but complicated winds soon started to affect proceedings and within 10 minutes, fleet positions had turned inside out.

 Team Pindar today finished second in the Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week, skippered by Former ISAF World Sailor of the Year and TEAMORIGIN Team Director, Mike Sanderson.

Light winds this morning forced organisers to modify the normal ‘round-the-island’ course, to a shortened 35-mile route through the Forts and around Nab Tower off the Isle of Wight. 8 miles from the official line, as the wind dropped further, the race was called to an early finish, sealing victory for Frenchman Seb Josse and his crew on board BT IMOCA 60.

 Now in its third year, this year’s Artemis Challenge attracted a total of eight Open 60’s many of which had not competed since the end of the non-stop solo round the world yacht race, the Vendée Globe earlier this year. Each yacht played host to a celebrity sailor which included names from the world of entertainment and sport: Zara Phillips, Bryan Adams and Rugby World Cup winners Will Greenwood and Mike Tindall. Sailing on board Team Pindar was BBC TV presenter, adventurer and Earthwatch ambassador, Paul Rose.

Mike Sanderson commented: “Obviously it was disappointing not to have more breeze, but we had a good time and definitely made the most of the day. Considering how well the boat has been performing in the strong winds over the last few days, I was really encouraged to see how well she handled the light breeze too.”

Earthwatch Ambassador, Paul Rose commented: “I’ve been sailing all my life but it’s not everyday you get to be out on the water on an Open 60 and with some of the best sailors in the world. It’s been a tremendous event and a great opportunity to raise awareness for Earthwatch and its Oceans Appeal.”

Team Pindar is now preparing for the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race, which starts from the Royal Yacht Squadron

A further five hours later the fleet made its way back up the Solent from No Man’s Land Fort after the course was shortened for the first time but the wind totally disappeared between Portsmouth and Ryde creating a concertina effect on the fleet. 

Making zero headway against a now adverse tide, the race officers made a decision to put the self-shortening course procedure into action. It was agreed this morning that all competitors were to time themselves round each mark of the course, and take the times of the boat ahead and behind should this particular scenario happen.

The race office confirmed that the results would be based on the timings at Bembridge Ledge which meant that BT who was leading at the time was deemed the overall winner, and Pindar was second. Simon Clay on Artemis The Profit Hunter with celebrity guest Bryan Adams, were third. Stable mates – Artemis Ocean Racing –  with Sam Davies and special guest Zara Phillips finished 4th.

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The line-up this year is as spectacular, as it is diverse, with a huge spread of boats, from the 100 footers – Mike Slade’s line honours hunting ICAP Leopard, and the more comfortable Performance Yachts 100, Liara of Tony Todd – down to the smallest class 3 yachts, the shortest being the Polish 30-footer, Four Winds, belonging to Wieslaw Krupski.

The RORC’s IRC handicap system is used to level out the widely differing performances found across this range of boats as best indicated by their IRC time correction factors: Leopard’s stands at 1.868, while Tony Harwood’s comfortable Nicholson 38 Volante is the lowest rated boat entered with a TCF of 0.863. This means that to beat Volante, Leopard has to sail 2.16 times faster than her or when Leopard crosses the finish line, Volante could still be ahead of her if she were only half way across the Celtic Sea outbound to the Fastnet Rock with more than 325 miles of the 608-mile long race still left to sail.

With such a large fleet, the boats are divided up into classes: SZ, Z, 1, 2 and 3 with a special class SZCK, for the canting keel yachts such as ICAP Leopard and the Open 60s such as Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss. In addition, one of the most competitive classes this year will be the Class 40 of which 20 examples are racing, including Giovanni Soldini’s Telecom Italia, winner of last year’s Artemis Transat.

One of the favourites for the overall handicap prize is certain to be Dutch skipper Piet Vroon and his new Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens. Launched this season, Tonnerre has already won two of the three of the RORC races she has entered.

“It has been going very well. I am rather pleased!” says her Dutch owner enthusiastically. Vroon cannot remember exactly how many Rolex Fastnet Races he has done, but thinks the number is around 21. This includes winning overall in 2001, although he admits he followed this up two years later with a 237th place. “It is the only offshore race left. All the other ones are just overnight,” he says as to the attraction of the race. “The course is interesting and difficult. It is not all that easy to predict where you have got to be. In spite of all the electronics and weather information, it always works out slightly different from what you expect. Like in 2001, if you happen to get it all right – if you pass Portland at the right moment, Land’s End, if you catch the tides right, if the wind changes your way – by the same token, if you miss it by half an hour you can be out.”

Typically small boats do well when the race starts light and conditions build mid-week. In recent history the best example of this was when Jean Yves Chateau’s well-sailed Nicholson 33, Iromiguy won overall in 2005. “For me it is the greatest race in Europe,” says Chateau of the Rolex Fastnet Race. “There are many, many beautiful racing boats and we very much like this race. I have known this race for a very, very long time. When I was a child it was a dream to do this race, and for me when we won this race four years ago, it was extraordinaire!”

Chateau returns this year with just one crew change. Already this year he has been warming up by competing in the RORC’s races and at present lies ninth overall in the RORC 2009 championship.

At the bigger end of the spectrum, the race favourite is probably Niklas Zennström’s new Judel Vrolijk 72 Ran 2 that has already had a successful season in the Mediterranean. She also benefits from local knowledge having a largely British crew, led by Volvo Ocean Race veteran Tim Powell.

While winning the Rolex Fastnet Race comes down to how well each of the entries sails relative to their rating, many additional wildcards are thrown at the competitors from, in particular, the weather, but also tides and the numerous tidal ‘gates’ off every headland along the south coast of England. This is what makes this race one of the most tactical games of snakes and ladders in the yachting calendar.

One advantage of having a bigger boat is that they are less affected by these tidal gates than the smaller boats, as Tim Powell explains: “With all these kind of races you need an element of good fortune to make it through the tide gates smoothly. The one thing about our boat is that it doesn’t take a lot of wind to get going and get a decent speed up – whereas the smaller boats might struggle to get through a tide gate if there’s only 5 knots of wind. In that we’d keep on punching through. I am a firm believer that you need a bit of good fortune with the tides stacking up right for you. But that’s something you can’t control too much. You end up where you end up.”

Ran 2 will sail with her normal all-star cast including numerous America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race veterans but they will face the very highest competition with crews of equally accomplished sailors on board the STP65s Rosebud and Luna Rossa and on Karl Kwok’s Farr 80 Beau Geste. Powell says he will be particularly looking out for Rosebud and Beau Geste as they are the more offshore-orientated.

A record entry of 300 boats will each carry an OC Tracker for the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race, which starts from Cowes this Sunday, 9th August. The Fastnet Race is a 608 nautical mile offshore classic which sees boats ranging from 30ft cruisers to 100ft Maxis racing from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, to the Fastnet Rock, off the south coast of Ireland, before returning to the finish in Plymouth. Every yacht will carry an OC Tracker device, supplied jointly by OC Technology, part of the OC Group, and race organisers RORC. The OC Tracker is an Iridium-based GPS unit that automatically supplies position updates for the entire fleet, which can then be viewed online on a special race viewer.

This year’s edition marks the 30th anniversary of the tragic 1979 Fastnet Race, when gale-force winds battered the fleet. Fifteen yachtsmen lost their lives, and a total of 23 yachts were sunk or abandoned. A massive search and rescue operation resulted in over 130 sailors being rescued at sea, however, the limited communications technology carried by yachts at the time meant that one of the greatest difficulties facing the rescue services was locating each boat.

“This year we have record entry numbers of 310 – 300 yachts racing in the Fastnet and 10 IMOCA 60 yachts in their own class. We also have a new, improved race player and all the OC Trackers will be on the same race viewer,” explained Clémentine d’Oiron, Manager, OC Technology. The OC Trackers are a self–contained unit that operate automatically. “The crews have to just put them on the boat and switch them on by simply removing a small magnet, and then just leave it be. It will be automatically reporting every half hour throughout the race.

“It’s all self-contained, with no wires, and is really straightforward. The OC Tracker stays in sleep mode all the time, and only wakes up to send its message, which means it has a lot of battery life because it’s only on for 3 minutes every hour. It’s the most reliable system in the world and we’ve got the biggest fleet of trackers in the world.”

However, d’Oiron warned that occasionally a boat may not show on the race viewer. “Sometimes if the boat is too heeled over the OC Tracker might not be able to send a signal, so it will keep trying again. But if a Tracker isn’t working on the map, that doesn’t mean the boat necessarily has a problem.”

The first Trackers have already been fitted to Fastnet entries this week, with the remainder added and activated well before the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race at 12.00pm on Sunday, 9th August.

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In the X-35 class Tixelio dominated today, finishing first in both races. Dutch Just4Fun and Italian Giochelotta were second and third respectively in the first race. The second race was tight between Tixelio, Karma and Autoritas, a photo finish saw them first, second and third respectively.

“Garmin” and “Vertigo” won the ORC670 and RI classes coastal races respectively. “Telefónica” is first in the RI class overall standings, whereas Vindio leads the ROC670 class.

 

 

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Mike Perham, the teenager from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire who has high hopes of sailing into the record books at the end of August to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the Globe alone, has covered more than 1,000 miles during his first week and is now off the Florida coast.

He and his Open 50 yacht Totallymoney.com left Panama last Tuesday, but says he has not been able to sleep for more than two hours a day, sometimes down to one and never longer than 15 minutes at a time. This is because he has to stay alert for fear of being run down by one of the many ships that are following the same route between Panama and the East Coast of the US. At times he has reported over 20 ships on his radar. On Sunday Mike said in his blog, ‘The main thing is to be safe. The traffic has picked up a lot this evening – in the last hour I’ve had three ships pass within a few miles.’

Mike has also found the extreme heat particularly uncomfortable. He reports, ‘It’s so, so hot inside that the last thing I want to do at the moment is sit at the chart table. it’s over forty degrees Celsius day and night.’ Often he has no choice but to be in the cabin as he has had to navigate around the Miskito and Rosalind Banks that stick out from the coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. On rounding the western tip of Cuba over the weekend there was a traffic separation scheme to be negotiated.

Mike is having to use all his navigation skills, working the currents and sometimes fickle winds to pass through this area. His decision to go through the Panama Canal instead of around Cape Horn is proving far more of a challenge than was first perceived.

Another weather phenomenon he has had to contend with are the powerful lightening storms. On Monday he wrote, ‘Today was a day of squalls and some of the craziest forked lightning I’ve seen so far – a bolt hit the water less than a mile away from me as I rounded the western tip of Cuba. Slightly worrying when I’m the tallest thing around!’

Another concern are pirates which are known to operate in this area. Mike is on an increased state of alert and his web tracker, showing the world Totallymoney.com course, has been suspended until he is clear of the region

If the wind gods remain kind, the 17 year old circumnavigator now expects to cross the Ushant/Lizard finish line off Falmouth UK in 21 days time and hopes to return to Gunwharf Quay, Portsmouth on August 25/26

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The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and the crowds were cheering as both Oman Sail teams took control of the six races sailed on Monday. Masirah started the day with a dominating win over the fleet in the first race of the day but Renaissance was never far behind. After four races Masirah had done enough for the day as they could not be toppled from the top of the leader board, a position they had held since the first race of the first day. Renaissance had their work cut out for them as they were carrying a couple of poor results which their eleven top three places over the three days couldn’t balance out. Although they were never out of second or third place on the leader board, they had stiff competition from the team s below, out of which any of five of them could have leap-frogged them onto the podium.
The last race of the day counts for double points and it is this one that has, in past events in France and Italy, made all the difference to the final scores. Masirah played a safe game and took the boat home safely but it was Renaissance who was fighting for the difference between the second and third step on the podium with Gitana. Team Gitana and Renaissance were not only fighting for second and third for the Cowes iShares Cup, but also for second and third on the overall podium positions at the half way point of the iShares Cup circuit. Thus it was a nail biting finale for these two teams and the pressure was on as all the teams lined up for the start, only metres away from the thousands of spectators watching the action from the shore. In the end Gitana took first place and Renaissance could only manage a fourth, behind Masirah and Ecover. This sealed the podium places as Git ana took second and Renaissance took an admirable third.

Special guests on Masirah for the day’s racing were members of Formula One’s Brawn GP team. Each boat has a fifth man spot that gives an invited guest the chance to experience sailing at the extreme and get into the thick of it. Brawn GP CEO, Nick Fry, was on board for many of the races, ‘I believe that sport is a wonderful catalyst for pulling people together. To support sport at the highest level will encourage younger people and inspire them to be the best and I am sure that over time, more people from Oman, both men and women, will want to be part of this successful team. I applaud those in Oman that took this initiative which I am sure will bring major benefits over the coming years.’

Now that Cowes is over and the celebrations for both teams are finished, the Oman Sail team packs up both boats into their containers. Then both containers are loaded up and transported to the North German City of Kiel where the fourth leg of the iShares Cup takes place and Masirah will be hoping to maintain their dominance and Renaissance will be looking to knock them off the top spot and take some of the glory for themselves. The sponsors of Renaissance (Renaissance Services, Suhail Bahwan Group and The Wave) will continue their support of the team until the end of the iShares Cup circuit.

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Pascal Bidégorry and his crew of 11 men aboard the maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V, smashed the Transatlantic Record crossing the North Atlantic,by half a day. They also broke the 24hr record with 908 miles.
Groupama 3 also broke their own record set in 2007.

THE ATLANTIC CROSSING RECORD

The first record time for sailing across the North Atlantic was established by the ATLANTIC schooner, a 56 m long three-masted vessel skippered by the famous American captain Charlie Barr in 1905, in more than 12 days. For 75 years this record was not beaten.

Eric Tabarly was to be the first person to smash it in 1980 aboard his trimaran PAUL RICARD, cutting the time to 10 days.

Marc Pajot (ELF AQUITAINE I), Patrick Morvan (JET SERVICES II), Loïc Caradec & Philippe Facques (ROYALE II), Philippe Poupon (FLEURY MICHON VIII), then Serge Madec (JET SERVICES V) each in turn reduceD the time, the latter having achieved the crossing in 6 days 13h 3mn and 32s in June 1990 at an average speed of 18.42 knots. This record was to remain in everyone’s mind, as it stood for more than 10 years.

We had to wait for the new generation of maxi-catamarans built for The Race for the record held by JET SERVICES V to be smashed. It was beaten on 10th October 2001 by the American Steve Fossett aboard his 38 m maxi-catamaran PLAYSTATION in 4 days, 17 hours, 28 mn and 6s, at an incredible average speed of 25.78 knots.

Bruno Peyron and his Orange II crew smashed Fossett’s record aboard the maxi catamaran Orange II, finishing the course from Ambrose Light near New York City to Lizard Point off the southwestern tip of Great Britain in just 4 days, 8 hours, 23 minutes and 54 seconds – more than 9 hours faster than Fossett. Halfway through the 3,100 nautical mile trip, Orange II hit a submerged iceberg and broke one of its two steering rudders.

The Orange II Dream Team improved on the record set by Steve Fossett’s PlayStation by 9 hours 4 minutes and 12 seconds, a record that was said to be unbeatable.

Next was 105 foot trimaran Groupama III , in 2007
With an almost unbelievable time of 4 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes and 54 seconds, beating Bruno Peyron’s time on Orange II by almost 5 hours.

Today in 2009 that record has been shattered again.
Prelimary times until ratified are,

Groupama 3, – 3 days 18 hrs, 12 min, 58 secs – average speed 31.92 kts

Banque Populaire V,- 3 days, 15 hrs,25 min,48 secs, average speed 32.94 kts, peak speed 47.15 kts,

24 Hour Record, 908 mile, average speed of 37.8 kts
1905 – Charlie Barr – Atlantic – USA – 12d 4h 1m – 10.02 kts
1980 – Eric Tabarly – Paul Ricard – FRA – 10d 5h 14m – 11.93 kts
1981 – Marc Pajot Elf – Aquitaine – FRA – 9d 10h 6m – 12.94 kts
1984 – Patrick Morvan – Jet Services II – FRA 8d 16h 33m – 14.03 kts
1986 – Loïc Caradec – Royale II – FRA – 7d 21h 5m – 15.47 kts
1987 – Philippe Poupon – Fleury Michon VIII – FRA – 7d 12h 50m – 16.18 kts
1988 – Serge Madec – Jet Services V – FRA -7d 6h 30m – 16.76 kts
1990 – Serge Madec – Jet Services V – FRA – 6d 13h 3m – 18.62 kts
2001 – Steve Fossett – PlayStation – USA – 4d 17h 28m 6s – 25.78 kts
2006 – Bruno Peyron – Orange II – FRA – 4d 8h 23m 54s – 28 kts
2007 – Franck Cammas – Groupama 3 – FRA – 4d 3h 57m 54s – 29.26 kts

 

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The Oman Sail program is paying off dividends as Pete Cumming  and crew of Oman Sail Masirah take first place on Day 1 of the iShares Cup in Cowes today – winning 5 out of the 6 races held today.  Olympic Double Gold Medalist Shirley Robertson and her crew on Team iShares excelled at their ‘home’ event, benefiting from their local knowledge scoring their best result to date in the iShares Cup 2009 series and go into the second day of competition in second place on the leaderboard. French team Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild rallied in the second half to put them third overall just ahead of Loick Peyron on Oman Sail’s Renaissance. Throughout the racing there was plenty of action – the 40-ft catamarans regularly flying a hull thanks to the sometimes gusty conditions, the crews screaming for water, daring to come as close to the shore as possible without hitting the rocks – all keeping the spectators enthralled at the iShares Cup Race Village which is currently proving to be the most popular place in Cowes.

Six races were held in total on day 1 of the iShares Cup at Cowes Week– the UK round marking the halfway point of the six-stage European circuit. The first two races were straightforward reaching upwind and downwind legs but as the wind veered west, the game changed dramatically.

The first race went to Oman Sail Masirah – Pete Cumming and Chris Draper throwing the gauntlet down to the other teams. With the absence of BMW ORACLE Racing, Oman Sail Masirah go into this 3rd round of the iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series as favourites and the team wasted no time in stepping up to the mark with another emphatic win in race 2. Oman Sail stable-mate Renaissance driven by Loick Peyron finished 2nd and both BT and Team iShares were starting to put in some strong performances – 3rd and 4th place in the second race.
Regular Groupama 40 skipper Franck Cammas is currently hurtling across the Atlantic at high-speed trying to break the record but his Extreme 40 team here helmed by Gildas Philippe got a great start to race 3 and kept their cool to score their first win at the UK round. As the wind veered the nine-boat Extreme 40 fleet were suddenly in a different game – tacking upwind and gybing downwind adding an element of both opportunity and excitement as the breeze strengthened. But the Oman Sail team continued to pile on the pressure – Peyron took Renaissance across the line in 2nd and Masirah in 3rd, finishing half a boat length ahead of Nick Moloney on BT.

A penalty for Gitana Extreme skipper Yann Guichard didn’t stop his determination to get back in to race 4, pulling out all the stops to cross the line in 2nd behind Oman Sail’s Masirah who had clearly taken control of the day’s racing. Carolijn Brouwer driving Holmatro had a great first half to the race but lost out in the closing stages… In the final gybe to the line she must have thought 3rd place was hers until Cowes girl Shirley Robertson stormed past to claim the final spot on the race 4 podium – that result moved Team iShares up into 2nd place on the iShares Cup Cowes leaderboard

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