The Sailing Scoop

Volvo Ocean Race - NDT - Behind the scenes

2012-02-12T22:00:00.000+11:00

A short interview with Stefano Beltrando, who is a NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) expert for a number of teams in the Volvo Ocean Race. This is a great opportunity to hear about the work that goes on behind the scenes at each of the stop overs.

Full on start to the RC44 season

2012-02-09T20:00:00.000+11:00

[source: RC44 Class Association]
The 2012 RC44 Championship Tour kicked off in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote with a full day of match racing. A familiar team was at the top of the leader-board after nine flights and six matches a piece, and some new faces showed they will be real contenders this season.

Match Racing at the RC44 Puerto Calero Cup - Photo © Nico Martinez

Match racing in Lanzarote - Photo © Nico Martinez

RC44 Puerto Calero Cup – Match Race Results
(After six races)
1. Team Aqua (GBR2041) 6-0
2. Katusha (RUS007) 5-1
3. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS13) 5-1
4. Aleph Sailing Team (FRA17) 4-2
5. No Way Back (NED18) 4-2
6. RC44 Team CEEREF (SLO11) 3-3
7. Peninsula Petroleum Sailing Team (GBR1) 3-3
8. AEZ RC44 Sailing Team (AUT44) 3-3
9. RUS7 Sail Racing Team (RUS7) 2-4
10. Artemis Racing (SWE44) 2-4
11. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP1) 2-4
12. Team Nika (RUS10) 3-3 (-2 penalty points)
13. Ironbound (USA1) 0-6
14. AFX Capital Racing (ITA7) 0-6 (-1 penalty points)

Ask Team Aqua (GBR) what makes them so good and they will always answer ‘consistency’, and the key to that consistency has to be their team. Cameron Appleton (NZL) was at the helm today and had a familiar team around him, names like Matt Cassidy (USA) and Andrew Estcourt (NZL). With six wins and no defeats their season started as it ended in 2011 and credit went to the team. “The guys really need to take credit for today they did a great job, it was tricky and everybody got tested, every boat had issues and a big part of what they did all day long was what got us around the race course in such good shape.” Cameron Appleton, match race helm and tactician, Team Aqua.

Former World Match Race Champion Ed Baird (USA) is new to the class; today he took the helm of Synergy Russian Sailing Team and they nearly finished the day with a clean sheet, had it not been for a ripped spinnaker in their race against Katusha, who also finished the day with a 5-1 score-line with new helmsman in the form of four-time America’s Cup winner Brad Butterworth (NZL).

Baird was happy with his first day’s racing with the Russian Synergy team. “It was really exciting conditions today with the big shifts and big gusts which was a lot of fun. The team is fantastic these guys are very well prepared I’m impressed with how well they sail the boat, it makes my job a lot easier when I know that everything is going to go smoothly. Unfortunately we had one race where we broke the spinnaker and lost that race but otherwise it was a very good day!” Tomorrow, owner Valentin Zavadnikov will take over the helm.

Pieter Heerema was the top rated owner driver on the water with No Way Back (NED) winning four, and losing two, defeats coming from Team Aqua and the French Aleph Sailing Team steered by Mathieu Richard. A good start to the 2012 season and some new additions to the team as Heerema explained.“We thought it might get a bit too windy for a good day of match racing but it worked out really well, in fact the weather was absolutely fantastic.We have some new team members and our new tactician (Ross MacDonald) worked really well with the crew, so we’re very happy.”

With the NE wind picking up to 20 knots at times and the fleet raced to the leeward side of the Island, it really was a baptism of fire for the 14 teams. One team whose results really didn’t reflect their performance on the water was AFX Capital Racing Team (ITA), but the Italian team were in no way down beat at the end of the day. “The racing today was fantastic. I really enjoyed it even if we lost all of our match races. For me it was my first experience and for most of the team the boat is a new one so with each match we found more details that we need to improve on. I’m looking forward to the fleet racing; we can work on the boat speed and have some good races for sure, I am very optimistic about that.” Massimo Barranco, owner AFX Capital Racing Team.

With six matches completed by each of the teams in Lanzarote, the continuous round robin will carry on throughout the season at every RC44 event until the end of the season in Croatia where the 2012 RC44 Match Racing Champion will be crowned.

The fleet racing which counts for the RC44 Championship starts on Thursday 9th February at 12.00GMT. Racing continues through to Sunday 12th February; Follow the racing on the live blog at www.rc44.com.

Volvo Ocean Race - Maintenance in Sanya

2012-02-08T12:55:00.003+11:00

A video update of current shore team activity in Sanya. It seems that the modifications and repairs are never ending!

See the Volvo Ocean Race YouTube channel for more updates.

Kiteboarding Trials for 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

2012-02-07T22:18:00.001+11:00

[source: ISAF]

ISAF has announced that Kiteboarding format trials will be held in Santander, Spain from 21-25 March.

In May 2011 ISAF Council selected Windsurfing and/or Kiteboarding as a possible event for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.

ISAF and the IKA have proposed the following format options for Kiteboarding to be trialled in Santander: short track, slalom , course racing and enduro.

ISAF is inviting Member National Authorities, National Kiteboard Associations and Kiteboarding manufacturers to nominate a maximum of one man and one woman to attend the format trails.

Click here for the full press release.

Australian 18ft Skiff Championship

2012-02-07T13:13:00.001+11:00

Thurlow Fisher Lawyers with skipper Michael Coxon and crew Aaron Links and Trent Barnabus have retained their 18ft Skiff Australian Championship with a race to spare winning 3 of the first 4 heats. These guys are certainly now favourites to take out the JJ Giltinan Championship to be sailed from February 17-25 on Sydney Harbour.

We like this little piece of video we found at www.18footerstv.com

More strong upwind conditions for the GOR trio

2012-02-06T13:10:00.000+11:00

[source: Global Ocean Race, Oliver Dewar]

The first week of Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 has been the most demanding of the entire circumnavigation so far with strong conditions for the five double handed Class40s from within hours of the start in Wellington, New Zealand, on Sunday 29 January.

Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel led the fleet in to Cook Strait from the shelter of Wellington Harbour with Cessna Citation right into 30-knot headwinds and big seas forcing the fleet to reef for the first night at sea. As light faded, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron took pole position with Campagne de France as Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon split from the fleet and took Financial Crisis on a flyer south parallel to the coast of South Island.

As the main pack of the fleet dropped south-east leaving Chatham Island to port, the leadership changed constantly and the speeds increased with Ross and Campbell Field on Buckley Systems delivering the highest average of 14 knots with Campagne de France, Cessna Citation and the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire with Phesheya-Racing all polling averages of 13+ knots.

By Wednesday, Financial Crisis had re-joined the group as the fleet prepared for strong south-easterly headwinds with Buckley Systems leading and 20 miles separating the front three boats with Campagne de France furthest south a 49 degrees. Beating into a Force 8-9 gale with the boats hurled through immense seas took its toll and on Thursday evening at 48S, Ross and Campbell Field – leading the fleet on Buckley Systems – and Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on the Franco-British entry, Campagne de France in second place, abruptly turned north. Initially this was thought to be a move to avoid 40-50-knot headwinds, but injury and gear damage on Buckley Systems had forced the Fields to head for port in Auckland, 1,000 miles to the west, with Mabire and Merron making the same call.

For the complete update, click here.

Volvo Ocean Race Game Leg 3 Finish

2012-02-05T18:00:00.000+11:00

We finished Leg 3 in 2912th spot, an improvement from leg 1 & 2, but I think we can do better again in Leg 4.

In the Malacca Strait we closed in on the top 1000 but once the leaders reached Singapore they got a little extra puff an opened up a really nice lead.

Overall we are now 4536th out of an estimated 177,000 boats! Not bad, although the car looks out of reach at this stage!

Telefónica take the hat-trick with a Leg 3 win

2012-02-05T07:00:00.000+11:00

Telefónica took another win in Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race in what many of the crew have named as an extremely tough leg. Telefónica may have had Code 0 troubles on the first day but with their "never give up" attitude the team pulled it back together to sail through the tricky Malacca Strait and lead the fleet in to the South China Sea, never looking back.

Puma had a tough leg with several mishaps, a collision with a tree trunk, a snare with a fishing net and then to top it off, their flyer off to the east in the early stages of the South China Sea did not pay off.

IAN ROMAN/Volvo Ocean Race

Leg 3 results:

1. Team Telefónica - 12d 19h 58m 21s
2. Groupama Sailing Team - 012d 21h 45m 24s
3. CAMPER with Emirates Team NZ - 012d 23h 28m 23s

4. PUMA Ocean Racing by BERG - 013d 00h 29m 12s
5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - 013d 03h 05m 05s
6. Team Sanya - 014d 04h 35m 16s

Official website http://www.volvooceanrace.com/

Artemis AC45 training in Valencia

2012-02-04T07:56:00.001+11:00

Artemis Racing have started their two boat training session in Valencia, Spain this week. Artemis now have two AC45's and are sure to benefit from their latest edition.

We like this work by team photographer Sander van der Borch.

Photo credit: Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

www.artemisracing.com

VOR Game Leg 3 - Day 13

2012-01-28T09:58:00.001+11:00

Tough times in the Malakka Strait with extremely flukey conditions. I'm going to stick to the west coast at the moment and hope that with the next weather update the winds move into the north. This is also the closest angle to the next mark. Currently sailing at 135 TWA in 5.50knts of wind. I don't think the polars on the wiki are correct!

2012 MOD70 European Tour unveiled

2012-01-24T22:00:00.000+11:00

The MOD70 European Tour has been announced today and is set to be a huge hit on the European stage. Let's hope they have a media team to take up the challenge of creating some fantastic online content as we have seen with the America's Cup World Series and Volvo Ocean Race.

Read the full press announcement here.

Official website http://www.multionedesign.com/en/

TP52 Class Announces 2012 Racing Circuit

2012-01-22T22:00:00.000+11:00

KEY WEST, FL—Following a series of meetings held during Quantum Key West Race Week, members of the TP52 class are pleased to announce its plans for grand prix racing in 2012 and beyond.

Rob Weiland, TP52 Class Manager, says the class is forming a management group owned and controlled by members that will be responsible for event management, event marketing, sponsor and media coordination as well as recruiting new teams to join 52 racing.

“There is strong support and enthusiasm for this structure, not only among owners, but also potential sponsors who have been part of the discussions. TP52 racing will continue in 2012 and beyond at the same high-caliber level as in previous years,” says Weiland. “With class ownership and control, we expect to establish a strong, stable racing program that will continue to expand and excel.”

This year, the class will be racing in a circuit with consistent race management including on-the-water umpiring. The circuit winner will be the best-performing boat in five qualifying events. The regatta schedule will include:

- Palma Vela, Palma, April 18 – 22 (tune up event)
- Trofeo Conde de Godo, Barcelona, May 23 - 27
- Sardinia Cup, Porto Cervo, June 11 - 17
- Royal Cup, Palma, July 10 - 14
- Copa del Rey, Palma, July 16-21 (does not count toward trophy)
- France Cup or One Ton Cup, TBD in France, September 18 – 22
- Valencia Cup, Valencia, October 9-13

Weiland says IRC 52 and Soto 40 teams are invited to join in the racing. “We’d like to increase the participation, which not only makes for more exciting competition, but will also provide a chance to race for the Sardinia Cup, a team event with two-boat teams consisting of a 52 and a Soto 40.

For all events except the Copa del Rey, the 52s—whether a TP52 or IRC52—will race boat-for-boat. “The IRC52s will have to be within a TCC limit for this,” says Weiland. “That limit is set slightly above the TCC that a TP52 has in order to accommodate features such as carbon rigging, which under IRC carry a rating ‘penalty’.

“Just as we are experiencing at Quantum Key West Race Week, this will provide close and exciting racing,” adds Weiland. “Level rating, as such, is not a novelty, but the mix of level raters and box rule 52s is unique. For sure there is a lot to learn; we will start with an open mind and very few limits.”

At Copa del Rey, Weiland says the 52s will race under IRC. “That suits the event organization better and maximizes the number of boats on the start line. We hope to see well over ten teams competing in Palma.”

Weiland says the class will begin working with the clubs involved in the 2012 program immediately, while the organizational details are finalized for the management group. The 2013 calendar will be announced no later than August 2012. Plans for next year tentatively call for a return to the Americas early in the season.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing retire from Leg 1

2011-11-12T08:15:00.000+11:00

Due to the light conditions in the Med, Abu Dhabi Racing have retired from Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race. This must have been a really difficult decision for the team to make but understandable given the current conditions and ETA to Cape Town.

Here is the official press release.

VOR Game - Leg 1, Day 6

2011-11-12T07:45:00.001+11:00

Day 6 of the VOR Game it's been a struggle to get south in the early part of this leg. Those that were on the ball at the start and continually navigate their way out of the Mediterranean have done the best and are almost 800nm in front of us! The leaders are just east of the Cape Verde Islands whilst the Sailing Scoop struggles back at the Canary Islands.

Recently we have made our way west in an effort to meet up with the next weather system making it's way across the Atlantic and finally today it is starting to pay off. Hopefully we can claim some miles back on the leaders.

Become our friend or add us to your watchlist, just search for thesailingscoop within the game.

Congrats Bora

2009-08-17T01:50:00.003+10:00

photo credit: nige's blog

Congratulations to Bora Gulari the new Moth World Champion! Bora nailed the last 3 races 1,1,1 to totally annihilate the opposition.

Our own past moth world champions Nathan Outteridge finished 2nd and Rohan Veal 6th.

Game on!

2009-06-25T05:44:00.012+10:00

Start line: race one, day one, Photo credit: Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

TRANSFUSION (AUS) enroute to a win in Race 3, Photo credit: Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

For the Farr 40 class its game on in the waters off Porto Cervo, Sardinia. Today saw day 1 of racing in a solid Mediterranean breeze and BARKING MAD achieving the best scorecard of 1-6-4 to sit 3 points ahead of MASCALZONE LATINO and JOE FLY who are tied for 2nd

Aussie Guido Belgiorno-Nettis sailing TRANSFUSION had a great first day with a 9-7-1 scorecard and is currently 5th in the rankings. 2008 Australian Olympic Laser representative Tom Slingsby is tactician and great to see he is mixing in some big boat sailing to further his experience.

Read the day one report here.

Fathers, Sons and Daughters Aboard Flash For TRANSPAC '09

2009-06-25T05:17:00.001+10:00

A few more boats pulled into Transpac Pier at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach on Saturday. Some of them, including the Andrews 80, Alchemy and the TP52, Flash, used the windy Coastal Cup race from San Francisco to Catalina Island as a shake down cruise for the Transpac Race. Some boats ducked into Santa Cruz rather than brave the 30-knot winds, the rough ride and more carnage.

Tom Atkin's, Flash, and his crew weathered the bumpy ride south with some minor damage. Veteran Transpac navigator, Jay Crum, was among the Flash team. Crum set the double-handed Transpac record with Howard Gordon on Etranger and he played a major part in Bill Turpin's Alta Vita claiming the King Kalakaua Trophy for being first overall in the 2003 Transpac. Crum has sailed more than a dozen Transpacs. His son, Joe, will be sailing his second Transpac on the same boat as his father.

As they aired out sleeping bags and Med-tied Flash in front of Gladstone's and Club Transpac in Long Beach, Jay joked, "Last time it worked out well. He taught me a lot." The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and Joe, a full-time college student, is also an accomplished skiff sailor.

This father-son duo will be on opposite watches during the Transpac. Quipped Jay, "I sleep well knowing that Joe is on deck." Joe's summer vacation is aboard Flash. He has been helping to prepare the TP 52 for the Transpac and will be working the bow and the mast with Paul Allen.

Another father and his offspring are lined up for Flash. Paul Cayard and Danny and Allie, his son and daughter, are part of the 10-person crew. This will be America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race skipper's second Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpac. His first was aboard Sayonara in 1995. The Cayard threesome sailed together in last year's Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Hawaii.

Said Paul of Danny and Allie's Pacific Cup participation, "It was their first offshore experience. They loved it and it was neat for me to see how they changed over the nine days at sea." He continued, "Offshore Sailing has given me a lot, sense of self reliance, the belief that I will always find a way to survive and rebound from a bad moment. These are great character attributes for life and I wanted my kids to be exposed to that at a young age. Also, it is an adventure that we will share forever."

Generations of Transpac sailors will be sharing in Transpac '09 events that kick off on Friday, June 26th with the 4:00 pm Opening Ceremony at Club Transpac.

Follow the lead up to Transpac '09 at www.TranspacRace.com, the official website for the 2009 Transpacific Yacht Race. Become a fan on Facebook.

MRT Blitzes the Troia Match Cup

2009-06-23T02:31:00.007+10:00

CONGRATULATIONS MRT!!! Go Aussie Go!

A Triumphant MRT - photo by Wander Roberto

It seems to have been a long time coming, but the Mirsky Racing Team blasted through the final stages of the Troia Portugal Match Cup yesterday to take out the title 2-0 over ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing of New Zealand. After being picked by the top qualifier, Mathieu Richard of the French Match Racing Team for their semi final showdown, MRT came into the day with all guns blazing - taking the French team down in the first 2 races, and qualifying for the finals.

Adam Minoprio of ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing also qualified, taking down current World Champions Bahrain Team Pindar in the third and final race of their semi final series, giving MRT the final they had been hanging out for. "We have a great rivalry with Adam and his team" said Torvar, "and both our teams have wanted to race off in a Tour final for a while now, so it was really a dream come true to get to race them and take them down!"

Although the scorecard doesn't show it, the racing was incredibly tight, with both teams throwing everything they had at it. Thesecond race saw ETNZ/BlacMatch Racing come off the line with a slight advantage, but MRT maintained the starboard advantage, and managed to squeeze ahead at the first top mark with the kiwis snapping at their heels. "On the final downwind, we were making some big gains." said Dave Swete of ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing "we knew we didn't have enough to win it, but it was good fun to give the guys a scare."

This is the first World Match Racing Tour win for the young Aussies, but with Match Cup Sweden coming up next week in theirfavoured boats - the DS37's, it could be just the first of many.

MRT proudly supported by Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club.

Final Results:
1st Mirsky Racing Team (Torvar Mirsky) AUS
2nd ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing (Adam Minoprio) NZL
3rd Bahrain Team Pindar (Ian Williams) GBR
4th French Match Racing Team (Mathieu Richard) FRA
5th French Match Racing Team (Philipe Presti) FRA
6th Yanmar Racing (Peter Gilmour) AUS
7th French Match Racing Team (Sebastien Col) FRA
8th Team OnBoard (Bjorn Hansen) SWE
9th Waka Racing (Phil Robertson) NZL
10th Seth Sailing Team (Alvaro Marinho) POR
11th Team Proximo (Ian Ainslie) RSA
12th (Andrew Arbuzov) RUS

Kinley Fowler
MIRSKY RACING TEAM

Pea soup

2009-05-11T07:06:00.006+10:00

[source: Volvo Ocean Race]

A thick "pea soup" engulfed the fleet during the in port racing in Boston.

Telefónica Blue ruled the day on Saturday afternoon scoring two wins from two starts. Read the full article here.

Start of race two of the Boston In-Port race. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.

The fleet heads downwind in the fog in the Boston In-Port race. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.

Swiss join the Audi MedCup

2009-05-10T07:05:00.003+10:00

[source: Audi MedCup]

Swiss Olympic Star sailor Flavio Marazzi and Germany’s four times Olympic medallist Jochen Schuemann will combine forces under the Marazzi Sailing colours to become the 13th entry on this season’s 2009 Audi MedCup Circuit.

Star campaigner Marazzi, who finished fifth in 2008 in Qingdao and fourth in Athens and is looking ahead to 2012 the Olympic regatta at Weymouth and Portland, England has formed the Audi MedCup Circuit’s first Swiss team, sailing under the flag of the Gstaad Yacht Club, forming the biggest Swiss sailing project since America’s Cup winning Alinghi.

Marazzi will skipper and helm the TP52, which finished fourth overall last season as Geneva based Swedish businessman Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis. The team, under the guidance of Schuemann and Finn Olympic bronze medallist John Cutler, includes well known Swiss sail trimmer Christian “Blumi” Scherrer, an America’s Cup winner with Alnghi in Auckland, and Marazzi’s Star crew Enrico de Maria.

Since taking on the boat the team have managed to complete six days of intensive training off Valencia prior to final training before the first Audi MedCup Circuit event, the City of Alicante Trophy regatta starts next week.

Jochen Schuemann, who won the America's Cup twice with Alinghi, said: “During the last couple of months we have worked very hard to get this young and ambitious project under way. I’m very happy to help Flavio Marazzi to establish a new Pro Team and to share my experience in sailing and in managing a sailing team. MARAZZISAILING combines the experience and professionalism of established America's Cup sailors with the “freshness” of Olympic talents. I’m very much looking forward to participating again in the Champion’s League of Sailing.”

Private individuals are backing this new Swiss TP52 project from the Gstaad Yacht Club. The team’s ambitious objective is to generate further interest and backing from this first event with a top finishing place as the catalyst to secure the future participation of the highly motivated Swiss team through additional partners and sponsors.

Flavio Marazzi commented: “I’m very proud to sail the Audi MedCup together with Sailing Legends like Jochen Schümann and John Cutler. For me the MarazziSailing TP52 Project is an important step on my way to the Olympic Games 2012. As a Star boat sailor sailing within a team of 14 people is a real new challenge and I am convinced that our team will show a good performance in Alicante already.”

RIGHT TO PLAY is the social partner of the MarazziSailing team. It is an international humanitarian organisation, which uses games and sports programmes around the world to help children suffering from war, poverty and illnesses, in order to promote their health and education and to improve their quality of life in a sustainable way.

Flavio Marazzi, who has children, has been an ambassador of RIGHT TO PLAY for several years.

2009 Melges 32 North American Championship, NOR released

2009-05-10T07:00:00.003+10:00

[source:Official Melges 32 Blog]

The 2009 Melges 32 North American Championship hosted by the SAUSALITO YACHT CLUB (SYC) on September 6-8 will deliver three great days of awesome racing. The Notice of Race (NOR) has officially been released and online registration is open.

VISIT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE 2009 MELGES 32 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP

7 More Sleeps

2009-05-06T06:33:00.005+10:00

Only seven more sleeps until the first regatta of the 2009 Audi MedCup Circuit in Alicante , Spain.

Audi MedCup

ISAF Publishes Experimental Kiteboarding Competition Rules

2009-05-06T06:16:00.003+10:00

[source: ISAF]

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has announced today that the Experimental Kiteboarding Competition Rules have been released and published on the ISAF website.

The Appendix BB -- Experimental Kiteboarding Competition Rules have been published to provide a consistent global framework for kiteboarding competition. The Experimental Rules were produced by members of the ISAF Racing Rules Committee and ISAF Windsurfing Committee in collaboration with a group of kiteboarding enthusiasts in Europe and the USA.

These Kiteboarding Competition Rules are called “experimental” because they will be revised from time to time in response to feedback, comments and suggestions sent to ISAF by sailors, event organizers and judges who use them. Ultimately, it is expected that a revised version of Appendix BB will be put forward to be considered by the ISAF Racing Rules Committee and the ISAF Council for inclusion as a new appendix in a future edition of The Racing Rules of Sailing, the rules which govern the sport on the water worldwide.

The Experimental Kiteboarding Competition Rules were developed from the Windsurfing Competition Rules in Appendix B of The Racing Rules of Sailing. They are freely available to download from The Racing Rules of Sailing pages on the ISAF website at www.sailing.org/rrs or via the link below

Click here to download Appendix BB -- Experimental Kiteboarding Competition Rules.

David TILLETT (AUS), Chairman of the ISAF Racing Rules Committee, said, “ISAF is delighted to introduce the Experimental Kiteboarding Competition Rules. These Experimental Rules provide a great starting point for competition in this exciting new area of our sport. I would like to thank the members of the group that developed these rules, and in particular Dick Rose, Chairman of the Racing Rules Working Party, and Kamen Fillyov, Chairman of the Windsurfing Committee, for their work in producing the Experimental Rules.”

The ISAF Council welcomed kiteboarding into the ISAF family in November 2008, when it approved the International Kiteboarding Association as an ISAF International Class Association at the ISAF Annual Conference in Madrid.

Matt Allen takes out IRC Racing Class 1 title in Top of The Gulf Regatta 2009

2009-05-05T06:12:00.006+10:00

Matt Allen's Ichi Ban, Day 2 of Top of the Gulf Regatta 2009

Photo: Infinity Communications & Consultant

[source: CYCA / Infinity Communications & Consultant]

There was no stopping CYCA Commodore Matt Allen's Beneteau 44.7 Ichi Ban and his Aussie crew including wife Lisa Allen and Michael Spies. Five wins out of five races secured them the Racing Class title in the Top of The Gulf Ragatta and added further silverware to the trophy cabinet.

Racing continues in other classes today and you can follow the regatta here.

J24 World Championship , Annapolis, Maryland

2009-05-05T05:54:00.005+10:00

Racing in the 2009 J24 World Championship starts today in Annapolis, Maryland. A fleet of 82 competitors from eighteen countries have gathered to fight it out for the prestigious title. The fleet includes five former J24 World Champions together with five North American champions; a four-time European champion; two South American and five US Midwinter Champions.

Looking through the entry list, I can only see one lone Aussie - Doug McGain sailing "Code Violation". Doug's an ex-laser sailor and we wish him the best of luck in this World Championship.

Follow the regatta here.