Fredriksson varvar Match Cup Sweden med Västkustmästerskapet för Andungar. De samlar 18 båtar, vilket inte är illa (5 fler än vad CB-66 får ihop på Marstrandsregattan). Men intressant är också hans pratstund med Göran Peterson, ISAF-president… Foto: Fredriksson.
Skall man fota segling är det viktigt att börja med att välja rätt motiv. Och R-båtar när det blåser är mycket svårslaget. Och Johan på skota.se har ju den rätta känslan, så ingen är förvånad när han plötsligt dyker upp på VM i R8 i Hankø.
Här är hela hans galleri från dagens tune-up.
Yeoman of Wight, J/109:an som var minsta båt i Hong Kongs lag, blev tvåa i minsta klassen bara slagen med 0.5 pong av helt nya Corby 39 Quokka 7. Foton: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex.
Tar SHF bollen att få med ett svenskt team 2010?
1. GBR Red = 122.0
2. Ireland White = 144.0
3. Ireland Green = 161.0
4. France Blue = 166.5
5. Hong Kong = 180.5
6. Netherlands Red = 206.0
Här är de 10 bästa båtarna individuellt.
1. ROARK, Grand Soleil 43, Netherlands Red, 1.113 = 23,5
2. Antix Eile, Ker 39, Ireland White, 1.125 = 24,0
3. Quokka 7, Corby 39, GBR Red, 1.07 = 30,5
4. Yeoman of Wight, J/109, Hong Kong, 1.026 = 31,0
5. Blondie IV, Mills (King) 40, Ireland Green, 1.118 = 37,0
6. Fair Do’s VII, Ker 46, GBR Red, 1.190 = 45,0
7. Erivale III, Ker 46, GBR Red. 1.117 = 46,5
8. Prime Time, A 35, France Blue, 1.036 = 46,5
9. Tiamat, Mills 43, Ireland Green, 1.189 = 49,5
10. Holmatro, Hong Kong, Grand Soleil 44, 1.134 = 52,0
Alla resultat här.
THE PLAN COMES TOGETHER FOR GBR RED
July 6, 2008
While the GBR Red team started the final day of the Rolex Commodores’ Cup with a comfortable lead, a double points scoring final race combined with a front passing over the Solent bringing with it solid 30 knot winds, even stronger gusts, rain and terrible visibility maintained the tension until the very last moments of the competition.
In the end John Shepherd’s big boat, Fair Do’s VII made it around the race course cleanly to post a second place behind Anthony O’Leary’s Antix Eile in Ireland White, while the two smaller GBR Red boats, Jerry Otter’s Erivale III and Peter Rutter’s Quokka 7 had a much harder time in their classes, the mid-boat finishing ninth and the small boat coming home fourth. But overall the results were good enough for GBR Red to win the 2008 Rolex Commodores’ Cup comfortably, on 122 points with the two Irish teams White and Green on 144 and 161 respectively, pulling ahead of France Blue today, the defending champions dropping to fourth on 166.5.
“We have prepared for this like no other GBR team has prepared in the past,” explained a jubilant John Shepherd on his arrival back in Cowes Yacht Haven. “In the last Rolex Commodores’ Cup, we were the top boat overall, but our team didn’t have quite the same consistent results, so I sat down with the other owners and said if we are going to do this again it has to be properly prepared for and planned.” The owners within GBR Red were the only ones of the four GBR teams to form their own team which they presented to the selectors at the Royal Yachting Association with full details of their campaign, their boats, crew, preparation, race schedule and training. Fair Do’s VII and Quokka 7 were both specially built to win the Rolex Commodores’ Cup while Erivale III was also known to be a good offshore boat. On Fair Do’s VII they also rotated crew, in particular attempting to keep their inshore tactician David Lenz, fresh by not taking him on the offshore race.
“This is the fifth event we have done,” said Shepherd. “The standard has increased dramatically, even over the last two years. It is a much more serious event. It has also been a very cheerful event too, especially the camaraderie among the teams.”
But today’s outcome for GBR Red hung in the balance due to the race Quokka 7 was having in Class Three. Approaching the weather mark, Quokka 7 infringed and in order to avoid disqualification was forced to carry out two penalty turns. On the second of these the mainsheet block hit owner Peter Rutter. “I got hit on the head and the next thing I knew we were heading down the run,” described Rutter, now sporting a large lump in his forehead. “I lost the plot for a few minutes.”
The turns left Quokka 7 trailing the fleet but the crew pulled out all the stops for the remainder of the race. “We flew the kite on the first run and took off and ground our way back. You could feel the Rolex Commodores’ Cup eeking away from us at that stage. And the boys kept going and kept going and there was enough race left in it.” Impressively over the course of the race Quokka 7 sailed up the fleet from last to finish third on the water.
This is Peter Rutter’s fifth Rolex Commodores’ Cup and he paid tribute to his crew, helmsman Martin Moody and John Corby, designer of his new boat. “The boat has done really well here. She gave us a get out of jail card and Martin steered very well. We were looking down a pit were thinking ‘here we are last’. We knew we had to get back to fourth and we managed it.”
Jerry Otter’s team also managed to squeeze through today despite encountering its own set of problems. “We went through a gybe and broached out and had to recover from that – we were on our side,” recounted Otter. “On the second run, the halyard slipped and it dropped about 20 feet. So just two bad things in the same day: one was a failure of equipment, the other was our own mistake. But that’s how it goes.”
Otherwise Otter was jubilant about GBR Red’s result and personally his second Rolex Commodores’ Cup victory: “It’s fantastic news – wonderful, and the second time. I am very pleased for the guys. It would have been nice to have won it in style, but we’d got the points in the bag previously and we’d all worked very hard all week and we knew that as the middle boat we just had to support the other two. So we feel we have done what we set out to do.”
Despite leaving the windiest wind race until last, the 30 knot near gale-force conditions proved too much for many of the competitors, with five boats in Class One along having to retire. Worst hit was the Netherlands White small boat Slainte which was dismasted. But most boats retired with boom or sail damage, sustained during the large number of wipe-outs today. Even defending champion Gery Trentesaux fell victim to gear failure when the end of Lady Courrier’s boom broke on the first run.
“Congratulations to the English,” said Trentesaux. “They sailed very well and were a level ahead. I think we were perhaps too late. We are 13 on board but we should have been 13 big guys to be faster! I am sorry for the French team. I don’t like to break my boat, but I know that it is life, it is part of the game. We are very lucky but we weren’t lucky today.
“The French were happy to be here and there was a good atmosphere. The RORC perfectly organised the championship and it gets better and better every time. The relations were good between teams.”
Within the three Classes the top scoring boats were Anthony O’Leary’s Antix Eile on a very impressive 24 points to second placed Fair Do’s VII on 45 in Class One, while in Class Two, Kees Kaan’s ROARK/Claus en Kaan Architecten held a similar lead over Eamonn Rohan’s Blondie IV. But it was in Class Three that there was the closest finished, Quokka 7 squeezing ahead of Jamie McWilliam’s well sailed Hong Kong boat Yeoman of Wight by just half a point.
The prize giving was held this evening at the Royal Yacht Squadron where the winning GBR Red team were presented with the Rolex Commodores’ Cup trophy and three steel and gold Rolex Submariner chronometers.
The next Rolex Commodores’ Cup will be held in 2010.
3-0 i finalen! Grattis som fan! Foto: Dan Ljungsvik.
Och det är ju inget dåligt gäng han har med sig: Oscar Angervall, Johan Barne, Daniel Björndal & Fredrik Aurell. Snygga kläder har de också :-)
With three wins in a row, Mattias Rahm won the third race in the Final against Australian Torvar Mirsky. He sailed fantastic during the last days and in the Final, the prestarts settled the win for the Swede.
Mattias Rahm started this flight perfectly and crossed the starting line with high speed and in just the right moment with Mirsky almost a boat length behind. During the first upwind leg, Mirsky showed great skill with his tacking but so did Rahm. Rahm chose a route further south than the Australian and that paid off when coming up to lay line to round the mark. At that time the distance down to Mirsky’s boat had increased to three boat lengths.
At the first downwind leg the Australian skipper managed to close up on Rahm but could not pass. Coming round the mark for the second upwind leg, Rahm sailed beautifully. He chose not to keep tight coverage on Mirsky. That risky move paid off and the lead was, once again, three boat lengths when rounding the upwind mark.
On the last downwind leg, Rahm sailed very confident and Mirsky had no way to get back in the game. After crossing the finish line the Swedish Crew sailed close to Marstrand’s southern shore to receive the acclaim and applause from the many spectators on the cliffs.
“We’ve sailed fantastic. This is so great. I don’t know what to say. I’ve dreamt about this for 15 years. I remember when I was here as a spectator. I can’t believe that even though we’re not ranked as high as some of the other crews we managed to beat them. We’ve been sailing so confident and our prestarts have been fantastic. Today we won all the prestarts against Mirsky with over one boat length”, the exceedingly happy skipper said.
Här har ni storyn om Panache vs Fantasia under årets Gotland Runt. Så klart är det Panache som har fel, men lite underligt att Fantasia inte lyckas undvika en kollision?
Vad skall man säga. Jo, det kan jag säga att om vi varit styrbordsbåt och sett någon fan som inte såg ut att ha för avsikt att väja så hade vi ropat som fan så fort vi insett fara för kollision, och, om detta inte hjälpt hade vi duckat och protesterat fort som fan självt. Aldrig, och jag menar aldrig hade vi utsatt egen båt eller annan båt med människor ombord för faran med en kollision mellan två båtar. Det är ju för fan livsfarligt. Båtar kan sjunka och folk kan bli skadade, rent av dödade. När jag hör att Fantasia sett oss i en minut och skriker till oss först 2-3 sekunder innan kollision blir jag djävligt upprörd. Att vi gjorde fel är en sak, men, att inte göra allt för att undvika en kollision är fan inte OK. Pretty fucking far from OK, om man frågar mig. Kappsegling eller inte. Man kan fan inte åka runt och krocka med allt bara för att man har rätt till det. En vecka senare är ilskan över detta fortfarande lika stark.
Tim Jeffery på the Telegraph och en del andra verkar tycka att E4 kan bli klurig att köra runt jorden. Säkert supersnabb, men kommer båt och besättning att palla?
Flat pack boats in land of IKEA
To Stockholm to see the second of the Ericsson boats for this winter’s Volvo Ocean Race. In novel fashion she was built by Killian Bushe in Kista, a Scandinavian Silicon Valley suburb of the Swedish capital and bang next door to Ericsson’s world HQ.
Not only have 7,000 visitors looked in to see the boat under construction but so too have 10,000 employees. Nice idea for a race that starts in Spain in October and won’t been seen again in Europe until early next summer.
This is a company that works its sponsorship hard. In the last race Ericsson had client meetings around the world and the revised course through India, Singapore and China means three billion new consumers to try and make a connection with.
Back to the boat. The striking thing about Ericsson 4, as the team call her, is her flat bottom.
There’s nothing new in this in terms of race boat design but, boy, does it put a premium on how the helmsman ‘lands’ the boat when driving at speed.
It’s no coincidence that over the years there’s been a number of racing boats which have suffered structural failures when doing something seemingly as innocent as motoring along.
Therein lays the problem: the boat is bolt upright. Much better to be heeled so that the flat floor actually becomes Vee-d in section.
But we’re talking a different order of magnitude with the Volvo 70s. Quite possibly, these boats will be launched off one wave at speeds up to 40 knots, take some big air, and then crash into or beyond the next trough or crest.
Remember that water is not as soft as it seems. It’s incompressible, so slamming into a wave at 40 knots wouldn’t be far off hitting a wall in a car traveling at 50mph.
Designer Juan Kouyoumdjian told the audience at the unveiling that: “Some boats come along every now and again with soul. This boat has soul.” E4 might have this but she’ll also need some grit in her character too given the abuse the seas are going to mete out.
Angular boats are all the rage for this Volvo Ocean Race. The Rob Humphreys-designed Russian boat has both serrated bow sections and topsides that when you lean over the side, instead of seeing the hull curve away from you is as flat as a wardrobe.
Skipper Andreas Hannakamp jokes that the boat was built too big and was put through a band saw to shave her to the right size.
I think he was being apocryphal.
GBR RED TIGHTENS THE SCREW
July 5, 2008
Strong winds at the Rolex Commodores’ Cup led to a change of course from the planned round the island race to a 35 mile course down the Solent and around Hayling Bay, keeping the fleet out of the worst of the winds. GBR Red took the opportunity to post their most impressive performance of the Rolex Commodores’ Cup with all three of their boats winning their respective classes. Having led by ten points going into today’s race, GBR Red have delivered a near terminal blow over the other teams, and now hold a 32.5 point lead over defending champions France Blue going into tomorrow’s final race.
“Obviously we are all very very pleased. It’s been a lot of hard work,” commented Peter Rutter, skipper of GBR Red’s Class Three boat Quokka 7.
Today’s race was scheduled to be a clockwise lap of the Isle of Wight. However, with near gale force winds blowing on the south side of the island and the potential for severe wave conditions off the island’s southernmost tip, St Catherines Point, the Rolex Commodores’ Cup race committee chose to instead send the 45 boat fleet eastward down the Solent and in the lee of the island.
Today the boats again set sail from the start line of the Royal Yacht Squadron en masse. There was one general recall before the start was made cleanly, the boats reaching east at pace in the solid breeze and a sea that got increasingly lumpy as they ventured past the Forts off Portsmouth out into the open sea.
Boats experienced gusts of up to 30 knots sailing out of the Solent, but once out into Hayling Bay the wind was generally 18-20 knots. “20 knots, clear blue sky: champagne sailing,” recounted a windswept John Greenland, helmsman of Fair Do’s VII, the GBR Red big boat. “You dream of being able to race down the Solent with the jib top blasting along at 12-13 knots. So it was ideal.”
For many crews the wind in Hayling Bay was less than some had feared. “You got yourself prepared for the fact that it is blowing 30 knots so everyone is in that batten down the hatches zone,” commented Greenland. “But for most of the race it was only 20 knots. But we didn’t have any crew handling issues.” Fair Do’s VII even hit 15 knots coming back up the Solent towards the finish.
Fair Do’s VII once again benefited from leading Class 1 around the race course. “We made the biggest gain pulling out of the Solent,” recounted Greenland. “Some people went higher, but we went lower to pass below some ships and as the breeze filled in a little bit and veered, we could come up with a bit more pace, whereas they were trying to sail a bit too low with their sail choice. We probably pulled out about one and a half minutes on them at that point and stayed about that distance ahead all the way around.”
But it was close. Anthony O’Leary’s Antix Eile, the big boat in Ireland White, with former Volvo Ocean Race winning crewman and 18ft skiff champion Rob Greenhalgh, calling tactics finished just 15 seconds astern of Fair Do’s VII on corrected time. “It was lovely, very enjoyable,” commented O’Leary.
O’Leary admitted that helming during today’s mass start had been quite hair-raising, but in finishing second they had continued their consistent results. Antix Eile has the lowest points score of any boat in Class 1. “Saying this is probably the kiss of death, but we haven’t had a result outside of the top three in the regatta, which is what we aimed for.”
In Class Two, the win for Jerry Otter’s Erivale III was almost as tight, just 39 seconds ahead of Conor Phelan’s Jump Juice in Ireland White. Tactician and sailmaker Jeremy Robinson attributed their success today to their reaching performance: “We obviously had the reaching start and then we went around the second mark second in class. We were basically up with Blondie all the way around. She’s just a little bit better than us on the breeze. On the last reach to the Fort we caught her up but I didn’t want to get too tangled up, so we went to leeward of her. But then she broached out and that gave us our opportunity.”
Kees Kaan’s perennial winner in Netherlands Red, ROARK Claus en Kaan Architecten, finished an uncharacteristic sixth place but holds on to her position as the regatta’s lowest points scorer in all classes.
In Class 3 Peter Rutter’s Quokka 7 had an easier time of it, finishing almost 3.5 minutes ahead of yesterday’s winner, Marc Alperovitch’s Prime Time. “It was all good enjoyable fun and long legs,” said Rutter. “I think anyone would have enjoyed it today. We were quite excited because we ended up in the middle of the Class 2.”
With a substantial lead, winning the 2008 Rolex Commodores’ Cup is now within the grasp of GBR Red, but with tomorrow’s final race counting for double points, they cannot rest on their laurels. “We all have to come fourth or better to guarantee it, but one boat disqualified would be 20 points – which is our lead,” said Rutter. “So we have to keep our noses clean and sail very sensibly with tomorrow being a double points race.”
So were the race committee right not to send the boats around the island today? In the aftermath of a cracking day’s racing, the opinions of the crews confirmed the sense in the decision:
Jeremy Robinson: “With the weather forecast, I think yes. When we got out there it didn’t look as bad as it said.”
Peter Rutter: “They had 35 knots over at St Catherine’s Point and we were out there in 15-20 which was enough.”
Anthony O’Leary: “I think it was a wise move not to send the boats around the island, because the end of it would have made it very difficult for the smaller guys in particular and probably everyone. But for us – a very exciting race.”
The Rolex Commodores’s Cup 2008 concludes tomorrow with a double points inshore race scheduled for 10.30AM. The final prize giving will be held at the Royal Yacht Squadron at 5.00PM.
Top Six Teams – Provisional Positions 5/7/08
Team / Points / Place
GBR Red / 92 / 1
France Blue / 124.5 / 2
Ireland Green / 129 / 3
Ireland White / 132/4
Hong Kong / 156.5 / 4
Netherlands Red / 176 / 5
