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Breaking News
JT's new tri launched
25 August 2010
More photos in the forums here.
MedCup
25 August 2010
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Did Texting Cause Accident?
25 August 2010
From Latitude 38:
August 23, 2010 - San Diego
The National Transportation Safety Board recently revealed that an unspecified number of crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard vessel that collided with a small boat in San Diego Harbor on December 20 were either texting or talking on their cell phones. Though stopping short of saying the activities were the direct cause of the accident, which killed an eight-year-old boy and seriously injured four other passengers, the NTSB urged the Coast Guard to develop a stricter policy regarding the use of electronic devices by its members. Though the agency acknowledges in a letter to the Coast Guard the potential usefulness of such devices as a backup for radio communications, "to achieve the intended improvement in safety, the NTSB believes that the Coast Guard must systematically identify the specific risks associated with distraction while using a cellphone or other wireless electronic device during vessel operations and address those risks in its policies."
- latitude / ld
Anyone up for a Challenge
24 August 2010
You'd probably have to leave from somewhere other than NZ though.
And one for Rigger
A good breeze and sunshine at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010
22 August 2010
From Lesley Haslar:
It's a week of competition and entertainment both on and off the water. Two boats from New Zealand are competing in the South Pacific Challenge.
The New Zealand team of two: In Grand Prix Division Jim Farmer's Georgia (Botin and Carkeek) against the Australian boat Shogun; In Performance Racing Division Rob Bassetts Wired (Bakewell White 52) against Nikon Spirit of the Maid.
Day one in the South Pacific Cup: Wired popped the champagne cork as Performance Racing Division winner and Shogun took first place against Georgia in the Grand Prix Division. End of day one - EQUAL.
Hannahs Point was pretty busy. Boats kissing the coastline, just a mingling of boats all shapes and sizes. Communication was often loud and clear, not to be repeated on Crew.org.....
Results (corrected time) Day 1 Performance Racing: Wired in first place out of 14 starters followed by Questionable Logic - Pandora - Stomp - Dream lover - Iago - One O Nine - Colortile - Rock N'Roll - Funnelweb - Ophir - Mondo - Jackpot - Nikon Spirit of the Maid
Results (corrected time) Day 1 Grand Prix Division: Loki took first place out of 16 starters followed by Living Doll - Wild Oats X - Shogun - Scarlet Runner - Georgia - Yendys -Blackjack - You're Hired - Alacrity - After Shock - Velocci - Terra Firms - Secret Men's Business - Wedgetail - Lahana
Day two: Wired started the day in pre-race with two whales - for the audience leaning over the railing at Hamilton Island Yaht Club. Who won? Wired kept clear 'calling for room'. The breeze steady 7-10 knots - a downwind start with Dent Island to port. After rounding Dent they headed over to Pine Island and Long Island.
Georgia has moved forward race by race, a good day on the water. There's more to come from Jim Farmerand his crew later in the Regatta. A little short on crew-chats today as the writer was required on the Golf Course at Dent Island.......
Results (corrected time) Day 2 Performance Racing: Questionable Logic took the prize - followed by Iago - One O Nine - Wired - Stomp - Colortile - Rock N' Roll - Pandora - Dream Lover - Ophir - Funnelweb - Jackpot -Nikon Spirit of the Maid - Mondo (RAF)
Results (corrected time) Day 2 Grand Prix Division (Race #2): Loki did it again in First place followed by Wild oatsX - Secret Men's Business - Blackjack - Living Doll - Georgia - Yendys - Shogun - Alacrity - Afterchock - Veloce - Terrafirma - Wedgetail - Lahana - Scarlett Runner - You're Hired
(Race #3) - Loki up front - followed by Blackjack - wild oats X - Georgia - Living Doll - Shogun - Yendys - Secret Men's Business - Lahana - You're Hired - TerraFirma - Scarlet Runner - Alacrity - Veloce - After Shock - Wedgetail
As of today (Sunday) - New Zealand is leading in the South pacific Cup.
Flipped Cat Anna Washes Up on Tonga
21 August 2010
From Latitude 38
August 20, 2010 - South Pacific
 (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) There are many false rumors flying around Tonga in relation to the capsizing of Anna. © 2010 Scott Stolnitz |
"Anna, the Atlantic 57 catamaran owned by Kelly Wright of Santa Fe, New Mexico, that flipped 125 miles from Niue in the South Pacific the first weekend in August, somehow managed to make her way unscathed through the East Reef passage of the outer reef at Vava'u, Tonga, then washed up against an island and was badly damaged," report Scott and Cindy Stolnitz of the Marina del Rey-based Switch 51 cat Beach House. "She's now tied to a mooring in Neiafu, where she looks like "parallel submarines at Disneyland."
With Anna's arrivel has come a lot more misinformation and baseless speculation. First off, the name of the cat is Anna, not Anna Valdivia as previously reported. Valdivia is the city in Chile where Awolplast, the builder of Anna and other Atlantic 55s and 57s, is located.
There have also been erroneous reports that Anna was a "giant Hobie Cat" that only weighed about 14,000 lbs, and her ultralight displacement contributed to her flipping. Designer Chris White assures us that the 14,000-lb weight rumor is complete nonsense, and that Anna weighed about 30,000 lbs when she went over. We have no doubt this is true, as Bob Smith's Pantera, which has been sailing all over Mexico for years, weighs 14,000 lbs, and she's only 44 feet, has a tiny salon, is ultra simple, and was built of carbon fiber.
There have also been reports that Anna's spinnaker was up when she flipped, so that she wasn't just carrying a reefed main and a self-tacking jib. Apparently this belief was based on the fact that the spinnaker, or part of it, was seen at some point billowing around in the water. Only Wright and his crewmember Glen McConchie of Christchurch know for sure, but we believe their claims that the chute wasn't up. After all, it was nighttime, there were only two of them, it had been squally, and rough weather had been forecast. Unless somebody says they found the halyard attached to the head of the chute and all the other spinny lines had been run, we're not going to doubt Wright. It's very easy to imagine that the chute had been in a bag on deck, and some or all of it had come out after more than 10 days of sloshing around in the ocean.
One of the crew of Forum Pacific, the ship that rescued the crew of Anna, took some interesting video while picking up the crew of the cat. Check it out below, because it's very interesting. You'll see the two men, Wright and McConchie, each standing up next to a rudder as the ship approaches, one of the ship's crew firing a really cool bucket-like device that shoots a line, and the two men climbing a ladder up the side of the ship.
The most amazing thing is how both Wright and McConchie, despite having been on the overturned cat for somewhere between 12 and 17 hours - reports have differed - looked like they had just come out of a very warm pool after a pleasant swim. Talk about being none the worse for the experience! As a result, the biggest lesson we've taken from the accident is that if you're going to flip a cat, do it in the tropics. If you're going to do it in cool or cold water, have a wetsuit or a survival suit handy.
 A still from the video of Anna's crew being rescued show Kelly Wright & Glen McConchie appearing almost as fresh as if they'd just gone for a quick swim. Photo Courtesy Forum Pacific © 2010 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc. |
There's a rumor going around Tonga that the owner of Forum Pacific, which rescued the Anna crew, fired the captain. According to the rumor, the owner is mad that the skipper, having a 50-ton crane on the Forum Pacific, didn't pick up the very valuable year-old cat. Don't bet the farm on this rumor being even remotely true. Besides, judging from the sea conditions in the YouTube video, the cat would have been bashed to pieces had they tried to lift her aboard the ship.
As it was, apparently there has been a squabble over the 'salvage' of Anna. We're betting that none of the squabbling parties know anything about salvage law - not that it tends to matter in the more remote parts of the world.
- latitude / rs
Moths
20 August 2010
Just coz they are cool boats, and I'm going out with Brownie again next week I hear he had Moose having lessons last week).
Here's Des
20 August 2010
Here's Des
It's Wrap-Up Time
20 August 2010
From Lesley Haslar
A beautiful day at Airlie - for tourists. The first race delay took us through to noon - a shortened course was selected by Race Office to fit the day, ideally to finish by 2pm. Race Officer Ross stopped by Media Office at 1300 hours to say "Would you like me to make life more interesting about this race? - well I can't" - we then heard from him the 'latest and greatest'.... "The committee goal now is to have race results in by 1500 hrs - boats to get back whenever they can." Party time will wait.
All yachts were floating-along in race format not going anywhere fast. It didn't get better - at 1340 hrs all races were abanondaned except IRC and Multi Hulls - their race shortened at Denman Island where they crossed the line in a breeze fluctuating around 4 knots.
IRC Division; Race Day 6: Wired and Living Doll skated over the start line side by side - as Ray Haslar said "It was pretty even. But 2-3 minutes later at the first cross, Living Doll cleared Wired's bow by inches - and never looked back - The Farr 40s were extremely fast upwind in light weather - giving everyone a run for their money". Alan Daysh added "we did three less tacks than all the others at the west Molle Chanel (Day Dream) - put that in print". Wired finished the race at Denman Island four minutes behind the trusty leader.
All results can be seen on the Meridien Airlie beach Race Week website.
SERIES RESULTS IRC DIVISION:
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Living Doll - Victoire - Lambourdini - Cracklin Rosie - Bobby's Girl - Wired |
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Georgia took a day of rest to sort out wear and tear resulting from crossing the Tasie. Skipper Jim Farmer elected to take time-out to ready the boat for Hamilton Island and the South pacific Cup. Farmer was obviously not happy to have missed out competing at Airlie Beach, but sometimes circumstances dictate and one has to run with it.
Today has been a day to test patience. But 'yachties do as yachties do' when there are delays - they swim and play - and that's just what they did.
The young boys on Ketchup tested their skills walking the bow-sprit. Obviously not too confident and dressed for a dip. Needless to say there was lots of laughter and no one made it back on board dry....
Holy Cow crew are the entertainment at prize giving. A great group with their own special brand of humour. After a hot and tiring day on the water, crew were still quick to say "we're happy they sent us out - what could be better than a relaxing day on the water before we get second-wind tonight and create havic in the marque".
Roger Ramsey on Paloma Blanca (Cruising non spinnaker) laughed as he said "First time we were leading and they stopped the race - we had to turn around and head home".
And finally from Lawrence Oliver (Bali Hai Kiwi charter) - "I think they pulled the plug just in time. Bali Hai was first back at the marina - and where was the gun".
Photos Teri Dodds Photography
SLAM Kiwi Match - Detroit Cup
20 August 2010
Stage two of SLAM Kiwi Match's American tour kicks off this week as the team rolls into Detroit for the Detroit Cup. Hosted by the Bayview Yacht Club this is the third annual running of this grade 2 event. Raced on the Detroit river in the heart of the city right in front of the yacht club, this is sure to be another first class event run by a truly hospitable and friendly club.
This regatta, sailed on the clubs fleet of six Ultimate 20 yachts is one which brings together a lot of different skills. The boats themselves are tricky beasts to handle, being very light and manoeuvrable they respond well to body weight so team kinetics is extremely important. Also with the regatta raced on a river, teams need to quickly come to terms with the 2 knots of current which flows from Lake St Clair down the Detroit river. Fortunately we were here last year so should be able to quickly find the formula to start winning races straight off the bat.
Once again though, standing in our way is an outstanding list of truly world class skippers. Although Detroit may not be as well known for it's sailing as it is for some of its other characteristics, the Detroit Cup has a way of attracting an excellent field every year. With 12 teams competing from the USA, Brasil, US Virgin Islands, Russia, Denmark and of course New Zealand and 10 of the teams inside the top 100 on the world rankings it is going to be extremely tough.
In another example of the Bayview Yacht Clubs first class approach to running a regatta, they have once again partnered with Sailing Anarchy's On-The-Water-Anarchy. The Detroit Cup will be America's first match race regatta to feature comprehensive live internet streaming of the entire event. The live broadcasting will integrate live video with commentary from expert commentators, live tracking of boats as well as photo galleries from an internationally published photographer. So be sure to log on to www.detroitcup.com to check out all the action during the week. We will also have team updates on our twitter feed and links to all the action on our team website www.kiwimatch-sailing.com.
Thanks again to everyone for all there support. Also a huge thank you to Eric and Katherine Sanpere who have kindly opened their house to the Kiwi Match team for the second year in a row. For some strange reason they have decided to have us back during our time here in Detroit which is absolutely great. Thanks to SLAM for their continued support and all our friends and family for sticking by us.
Kiwi Match Media
Email: kiwimatch-sailing@hotmail.com
Website: www.kiwimatch-sailing.com