SailJuice Blog

A new global cat-racing organisation has been formed in the wake of the multihull community’s outrage at seeing the Tornado thrown out of the Olympic Games. The newly established International Multihull Council (IMC) intends to make sure the cat sailors have a voice that will be heard by the International Sailing Federation.

IMC president Paul Pascoe explains the reasons for setting up the organisation. “The decision of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to exclude any Multihull Event from the 2012 Olympic Games has shown that we cannot entirely rely on others to promote our interests, so need to establish our own organisation to do so.

“As there is no representation for Multihulls within ISAF, either formally through a Multihull Committee, or informally, through the interests of individual Councillors, national multihull associations from several leading ISAF Member National Authorities (MNA)… Read the rest

Good news, but also a lot of bad news, for sailors who want to see a re-vote of the slate of 10 sailing Events being lined up for the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth 2012.

If you’ve been following this blog since last October, you’ll be familiar with the whole Estoril saga, where the Men’s Keelboat won a narrow victory over the Multihull, and the Women’s Match Racing just edged out the Women’s Skiff. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, dig back through the SailJuice archives for October and November 2007.)

SailJuice was not a fan of either of these outcomes, and reported on the eleventh-hour change in voting procedure, a cunning move that was led by Charley Cook from US Sailing, whose agenda was to see the keelboats remain in the Games. (Fair play to… Read the rest

Four races into the Tornado World Championships at Takapuna near Auckland, and it’s a very unfamiliar looking leaderboard. French team Yann Guichard and Alexandre Guyander hold a two-point lead over Germans Roland Gaebler and Gunnar Struckman.

A few points further back in third are the Dutch representatives Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis. Canadians Oskar Johansson and Kevin Stittle hold fourth overall, but their scores look very tasty once the discard kicks in. They will be able to drop their 21st from race 1, while subsequent scores of 1,3,1 suggest they are dealing with the crazy conditions better than most. Then again, the way this regatta is going, 21st could end up being a counter.

Young guns Tom Phipps and Marcus Lynch were looking famous as they led around the top mark of one of the windy races, but as… Read the rest

Simon Nelson also shared an email he received from a penitent James Francis of the 18-foot skiff Pure Blonde, on how not to pin end start an 18-footer. By the way, that’s Pure Blonde in the photo (duh!) and on the left is Simon Nelson’s Appliances Online.

Look at the difference in rig profiles, and just how greedy these 18ers are getting with their batwing roaches on the mainsails. Most of the sailors swear by them, although former 18er and top skiff coach Emmett Lazich reckons there may be an element of the ‘emperor’s clothes’ about these trendy new sailshapes. Fashion statement or not, it’s the way skiff rigs seem to be going these days, as indeed are America’s Cup rigs.

Anyway, here’s what James learned from his Blonde moment during the JJ.

Now that the worlds are over,… Read the rest

It’s hard to believe that for three years straight, the Aussies were unable to win the JJ Giltinan 18-foot skiff trophy in their own backyard. Howie Hamlin won it twice for USA, and then Rob Greenhalgh won it for Britain.

In recent years it has gone back to business as usual, with the Aussies dominating proceedings on Sydney Harbour. Pre-event favourites, the Gotta Love It 7 team skippered by Seve Jarvin, lived up to their billing and won the unofficial 18 footer World Championship with a race to spare, although as you can see from the photo above, nobody’s perfect.

They have trained harder, been coached harder, and funded better than pretty much any other team. Although nowhere near the professional level of the old Grand Prix circuit which folded in the mid-90s, the standard… Read the rest

Groupama 3 has self-destructed and capsized in the Pacific Ocean. A disaster – but not a human tragedy, as all of the crew were safely airlifted to Dunedin on the south island of New Island. Fortunately, Groupama 3 was only 75 nautical miles east of Dunedin when the accident occurred.

This was the message that came off the boat soon after it turned over. “We have just capsized. The leeward float broke in two, leading to the breakage of the two beams and then the subsequent capsize. The crew is all together, taking refuge inside the central hull of Groupama 3. None of the 10 crew is injured. There are 5 to 7 metre waves and 25 to 30 knot winds. The seas are breaking and for the time being we’re not sending anyone outside.”

Watch leader Franck… Read the rest

Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson have defended their Yngling World Championship title in emphatic style, clinching victory in Miami with a day to spare.

These girls are becoming as firm favourites in the Yngling as fellow Skandia Team GBR member Ben Ainslie is in the Finn. Along with Ben, and Nic Asher and Elliot Willis in the 470, this is Britain’s third World Championship victory since the beginning of the year.

Australia have notched up two wins, Nathan Outteridge/ Ben Austin in the 49er and Tom Slingsby earlier this week in the Laser. USA claims the other win of 2008 so far, Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving in the Women’s 470.

As to the Yngling win in Miami, bowgirl Pippa Wilson described the moment as “amazing – it hasn’t quite sunk in yet!” She admitted that they… Read the rest

Good to see that the British Olympic Association shows signs of backing down on its ‘gagging clause’ in the contract that all British athletes have to sign before competing in the Games this summer. BOA chief executive Simon Clegg has now said the BOA has “no desire to restrict athletes’ freedom of speech.”

He went on: “”I accept that the interpretation of one part of the draft BOA’S Team Members Agreement appears to have gone beyond the provision of the Olympic Charter. This is not our intention and the final Agreement will reflect this.”

This is a good thing.

But I hope this doesn’t mean that journalists will now take the opportunity to ask hard, political questions of young athletes who just want to be in China to compete. Athletes shouldn’t be used as political footballs. Not… Read the rest

Tom Slingsby is beginning to mark himself out as one of the all-time greats in the Laser class, and he’s only 23 years old. The Aussie seems to like it rough, and that’s what he and the rest of the Laser World Championship fleet got in Terrigal.

It has to be windy when sailing is blown off for a world-class Laser fleet, but that’s what happened when the breeze was blustering up to 40 knots on the final day. So no Medal Race for 2nd placed Argentine sailor, Julio Alsogaray, to take a last gasp pop at Slingsby, and he missed out on the world title by just 2 points.

It has been a tough championship, with a few of the usual suspects appearing nowhere near the top 10. Slingsby said he was surprised not to get more of… Read the rest

After winning – but not winning – the Bloody Mary pursuit race a few weeks ago, Graham Vials this time really did bag the win at the John Merricks Tiger Trophy aboard his flying Bladerider.

Whereas Queen Mary Sailing Club (that’s near London, for overseas readers) only admits boats with RYA-recognised PY handicap numbers, Rutland Sailing Club gave the Bladerider a nominal handicap of 800. This puts it faster than an International 14, but slower than a 49er.

Now, Graham (pictured above, courtesy of www.ianroman.com) did win the event quite easily on points. So how did other competitors look upon his competing in the Bladerider?

“I think when I turned up on Saturday morning, some people thought I was a bit of a handicap bandit sailing off 800, but I think by the end of… Read the rest