Bermuda’s Optimist sailors will rub shoulders with the world’s elite during next month’s RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup.
By Colin Thompson, The Royal Gazette
There will be plenty at stake for Bermuda’s Optimist sailors during next week’s RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup.
On this year’s observance of World Maritime Day, which is dedicated to orchestrating an effective response to piracy, our thoughts must be with the 339 seafarers from 16 ships who are currently in the hands of pirates operating off the coast of Somalia. May they be released unharmed and returned to their families soon.
World Match Racing Tour points leader Ian Williams (left) will be gunning for a second Argo Group Gold Cup crown in Hamilton
Harbor next week. Photo by Charles Anderson.
By Colin Thompson, The Royal Gazette
Bermuda college kids Peter Miller and Lance Fraser will mix it up with the world’s elite match racing sailors during the opening round of the Argo Group Gold Cup. The promising Bermuda sailors have both been placed in groups comprised of past King Edward VII Gold Cup winners.
Ex rescue cruiser “Hans Hansson” soon to be for sale early next year. The vessel has been converted into an expedition/charter vessel, in very good condition and again in DnV class. Recently made an 8,000 mile trip to Antarctica for a motion picture expedition.
Milestone terminal delivered to certified partner ESL in Germany
Thrane & Thrane’s success in the world of FleetBroadband continues today as the leading satellite communication equipment manufacturer ships it’s 20,000th FleetBroadband terminal since the launch of Inmarsat’s flagship service in November 2007. The terminal is for Thrane & Thrane’s German certified partner European Satellite Link (ESL) GmbH, who will be installing it on a vessel owned by German shipping company Reederei Claus-Peter Offen.
Keeping alert off the Moroccan coast on BSL – photo Jesus Renedo
As the northerly breeze arrived on Wednesday afternoon, the double-handed, Class40 fleet in the Global Ocean Race 2011-12 (GOR) were on the move again following a period stuck in light airs north-west of Rabat on the Moroccan coast. Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron with Campagne de France held the lead by four miles, running along the West African continental shelf chased by Ross and Campbell with BSL with both Class40s averaging around nine knots. In third place, Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon on Cessna Citation had been reeled in by Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs with Financial Crisis and the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire on board Phesheya-Racing with just 15 miles separating the three boats. Hampered by the loss of any effective offwind headsails on Sec. Hayai, Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk trailed the lead boat by 157 miles on Thursday morning in a completely different wind pattern north of the main group.
Midweek in St Tropez is traditionally a layday for the modern fleet, and sort of a busman’s holiday for the classic fleet. Today is Challenge Day with one ‘featured’ race of the day, and a host of other informal challenges were struck for match races between competitors, solely for bragging rights. This year, the Club 55 Cup match was between the 140-foot 19 Metre Class, Mariquita and the 128-foot gaff schooner, Altair – both designed by William Fife III.
Sailed under the backdrop of Rovinj’s old town with the beautiful grand St. Euphemia Church towering above the start line, the fourteen teams competing for the Adris RC44 Cup enjoyed four great fleet races in the Croatian NW thermal ‘mistral’ wind today.
Global Ocean Race official rankings have been unrealiable all day today,
the problem was spotted earlier when Cessna Citation and us on Financial
Crisis started swapping positions, when in fact nothing had changed on the
water.
Waterways Ireland ISA Sailing Championship
The ISA are delighted to announce the 16 competitors and the flight draw.