Tag Archive for 'sailing'

America’s Cup set for March 2009

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Simon Scullion
on May 13, 2008
in misc
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As if we haven’t had enough contention since Alinghi’s successful defense, I can’t see this one stopping here.

The America’s Cup between holders Alinghi and challengers Oracle is to be held in March 2009, a New York Supreme Court judge has ruled.

Judge Herman Cahn ordered the series to take place in Valencia, Spain, or another location chosen by Alinghi.

The winner of the duel will have the right to organise the subsequent event under the more usual multi-team format.

So if this is how it stands, and I have understood things correctly, BMW Oracle Racing have basically won themselves the right to race for the cup, avoiding a challenger series!

What about all the other teams who are expecting a crack at it, and are who made this the media success the last time around? What about Team Origin’s attempt at mediation and a compromise?

Despite their not-so-clean reputation in all of this, if it is what ends up happening, all I hope for is that Alinghi thrashes Oracle on the water, and we can return to some normailty.

Short of banging a few rather rich heads together, some common sense needs to be brought back into the process in order to ensure that the America’s Cup remains the fantastic sporting and technological spectacle it should be.

Round the Island 2007

Published
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Simon Scullion
on March 26, 2008
in Photography and sailing
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rti 07

Originally uploaded by digitallust.


I stumbled across this photo today, and just had top share!

The Afterguard: The America’s Cup - There’s Everything to Pay For

Published
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Simon Scullion
on August 3, 2007
in sailing
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You can imagine the scene, you’ve just come to the end of a four year struggle to successfully organise a major global sporting event, no doubt with weeks of tying loose ends up still ahead; no sooner is the cup held aloft do you learn that you’ve got to do it all over again, only this time in a 2 year time frame… then news reaches you that there’s a court action challenging your every decision, so things are going to be even more complicated. The good news is you’ve pretty much spent the past 4 years accumulating all that you need for the next campaign, so you don’t have to worry about that. At the very least, you’d think your boss would let you hang on to your desk and chair to work from.

But this is the America’s Cup, and there’s sponsorship money to squander. So you decide to arrange an auction of everything that’s beginning to look a bit tatty - perhaps you have a new colour scheme in mind for the office, or you simply see an opportunity to rid the organisation of that golf buggy you might have accidentally ‘pranged’ on one of those cerveza-fuelled late night races around the car park.

Hilarious! Follow the link below for more.

So whats the big deal? The auction is real, check it out here: http://www.32acauction.com/

Source: The Afterguard: The America’s Cup - There’s Everything to Pay For

A Podium Finish in the "IX Semana Asturiana de Vela"!

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Simon Scullion
on July 25, 2007
in sailing
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We managed to finish third overall in the “IX Semana Asturiana de Vela”, so a podium finish for the second year running!

595 from the bowHere’s a brief summary of how the three days went for us, for anyone interested!

Friday

Race 1: 2nd
Race 2: 3rd

We gave our new sails their official debut, and we went pretty well. Race 1 saw us leading around the windward mark, but we slipped back a place going downwind and never managed to claw it back.

Our start in race 2 was a shocker! To get back up to third was a good effort, but you can’t afford to start from the back and win!

595 from the sternSaturday

Race 3: 5th
Race 4: 5th

A frustrating day. We seemed to find all the holes in the wind, and my attempt at tuning of the mast to better fit our new sails didn’t help. I wasn’t happy with how well the boat was pointing on Friday, so had looked to get a little more bend to flatten the main, but I think we went with the rig too tight in the end.

Both races gave further evidence that our starts are an area to work on. Enough said!

595 new sailsSunday

Race 5: 3rd

Sunday’s format was slightly different from the previous two days, a longer course, and sailing with the big boats. This made for some interesting moments! We got a reasonable start (for a change!), and we had good speed and we pointing well, after further playing with the rig tension. With hindsight we made the mistake of not covering (arguably!) the quickest boat when we should have, allowing him to get ahead picking the shifts better than we did. Having said that, another 500m of track, we’d likely have caught them, as downwind we were quick.

595 new sailsSo, all in all, three good days of sailing, despite the light winds. I’ll post links to any photos I find.

Update: Photos added!

New Sails

Published
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Simon Scullion
on July 19, 2007
in sailing
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595 new sailWe’re really chuffed to have new sails in time for the next regatta this weekend!

More to come, including photos!

Update: Photo added!

Vowe has a new poll…

Published
by
Simon Scullion
on June 7, 2007
in links
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who wins the America’s Cup?

Go vote!

Cutty Sark hit by fire

Published
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Simon Scullion
on May 23, 2007
in Uncategorized
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I’m a little late in posting this, but reading the news I was pretty upset. The Cutty Sark suffered a serious fire early on Monday morning, causing extensive damage.

Anyone who has an interest in sailing vessels will likely have heard of the Cutty Sark - or should have! For the land-lubbers out there, she is one of the last remaining Tea Clippers that made the trip from England to China, via the Cape of Good Hope, over a hundred years ago. Visitors to London may well have seen or even visited her too, as she has long been kept in a dry-dock as a tourist attraction and tribute to those in the merchant navy.

Perhaps luckily her current restoration has avoided much more significant damage, lets just hope the funds can be found to bring her back to her former glory.

The local boys have it tough…

Published
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Simon Scullion
on May 14, 2007
in Uncategorized
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Into the semi-finals we go, and the pressure dial gets turned up a few notches. Having got this far, the four teams going head-to-head in their pairings know that they cannot afford any errors. The first to five wins in a best of nine matches.

Having topped the table, Emirates Team New Zealand earned the right to choose their opponent for the next stage of the competition. They went unsurprisingly for the fourth placed team, Desafío Español.

The choice was likely quite easy; the Spanish have never beaten the Kiwis in seven tries over the past three years.

Source

The local boys have nothing to lose, the pressure is not on them. They simply have to go out and sail at the top of their game, try to pressure the Kiwis and take advantage of any mistakes whilst avoiding making any themselves. Sounds easy!

In the other pairing, BMW ORACLE Racing takes on Luna Rosa Challenge in what will be a hard battle, though the stats also favour the Americans.

I hope I am wrong, as I would love to see the Spanish get to the final, however I’m going with the stats and expect to see the Kiwis taking on the Americans for the big prize, the showdown against Alinghi.

Louis Vuitton Round Robin roundup

Published
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Simon Scullion
on May 14, 2007
in Uncategorized
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Today the semi-finals kick off with the first matches between the top four teams from the round robins. The final standings saw Emirates Team New Zealand step into the top spot having trailed BMW ORACLE Racing and Luna Rossa Challenge in third for most of the competition. However wins against both and Victory Challenge in the last three flights ensured them top spot.

The final standings then:

  1. Emirates Team New Zealand
  2. BMW Oracle Racing
  3. Luna Rossa Challenge
  4. Desafío Español 2007

So that worked out to plan…!

With one thing and anothe, I didn’t get to post my predictions for the last three rounds. Its all a little academic now, but for the record here they are. There was no cheating here honest! I had done the predictions prior to seeing the results. Anyway, who’s reading this rubbish!?

Flight 9

  • +39 Challenge    -    Team Shosholoza
  • China Team    -    Areva Challenge
  • Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team    -    BMW ORACLE Racing
  • Victory Challenge    -    Desafío Español 2007
  • Luna Rossa Challenge    -    Emirates Team New Zealand

Flight 10

  • China Team    -    +39 Challenge
  • United Internet Team Germany    -    Areva Challenge
  • Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team    -    Luna Rossa Challenge
  • Victory Challenge    -    Emirates Team New Zealand
  • Desafío Español 2007    -    BMW ORACLE Racing

Flight 11

  • Victory Challenge    -    Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
  • Desafío Español 2007    -    Luna Rossa Challenge
  • BMW ORACLE Racing    -    Emirates Team New Zealand
  • United Internet Team Germany    -    +39 Challenge
  • Areva Challenge    -    Team Shosholoza

Predictions Round-up

Here are my stats for both rounds and overall:

  • Round Robin 1: 76.36% (42/55 matches)
  • Round Robin 2: 85.45% (47/55 matches)
  • Overall: 83.64% (89/110 matches)

I’d have taken that at the start, particularly with having picked not only the top four, but the correct order!

One more interesting stat is the teams I managed to pick their results (win or lose) 100%:

  • Round Robin 1: China Team
  • Round Robin 2: Luna Rossa Challenge and United Internet Team Germany

To be honest, China Team wasn’t a surprise, and their moment of glory came with their big win against BMW ORACLE Racing, spoiling my record a little, as that would have seen two more names on the list for the second round!

Louis Vuitton Predictions - Thurs 3rd May

Published
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Simon Scullion
on May 3, 2007
in Uncategorized
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A few things have been turned on their head already during this second round of matches, with racing being cancelled due to too much wind, and the Chinese scoring a famous and moral-boosting win over none other than the mighty BMW ORACLE!

However the table is starting to stabilise, with the teams in contention for the last semi-final berth needing a good run of results during the final seven matches.

Here are my predictions for todays flight 5:

Flight 5

  • United Internet Team Germany    -    Victory Challenge
  • BMW ORACLE Racing    -    Luna Rossa Challenge
  • Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team    -    +39 Challenge
  • Team Shosholoza    -    China Team
  • Desafío Español 2007    -    Emirates Team New Zealand

Here the local boys will be going all out to get an important victory against the Kiwis, with the other big match between the top of the table teams, BMW ORACLE and Luna Rossa.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to manage daily updates over the next few days, so here also are my picks for flights 6, 7 & 8:

Flight 6

  • Luna Rossa Challenge    -    Areva Challenge
  • Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team    -    United Internet Team Germany
  • Victory Challenge    -    +39 Challenge
  • Desafío Español 2007    -    China Team
  • Emirates Team New Zealand    -    Team Shosholoza

This flight will see Mascalzone Latino look to get on a roll towards a push for the 4th spot, whilst Team New Zealand will be hoping to avoid slipping up against the South Africans who won’t be fearing their opponents following the scalps they have already claimed.

Flight 7

  • Emirates Team New Zealand    -    United Internet Team Germany
  • China Team    -    Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
  • Team Shosholoza    -    Desafío Español 2007
  • Areva Challenge    -    BMW ORACLE Racing
  • +39 Challenge    -    Luna Rossa Challenge

The top four teams will consider this a fairly comfortable day, if such a thing exists, however they won’t be taking their opponents lightly and will want to ensure they register another win.

Flight 8

  • United Internet Team Germany    -    Desafío Español 2007
  • Team Shosholoza    -    Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
  • Emirates Team New Zealand    -    China Team
  • Areva Challenge    -    Victory Challenge
  • +39 Challenge    -    BMW ORACLE Racing

This will be a day for the middle table teams to look to gain ground over their direct competition, with much needed wins. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top.