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FAREWELL TO BILBAO
The first leg of the Velux 5 Oceans has started from Bilbao, Spain. Six international skippers crossed the startline in the Bay of Biscay at 1300 (local) led by Briton Alex Thomson aboard 'Hugo Boss', the youngest skipper in the race.

Crossing the line in second and third place were Mike Golding (GBR) and Bernard Stamm (SUI), in a southwesterly breeze gusting 15 to 20 knots. By the turning mark, a one and a half nautical mile reach across the bay, the fleet had split into two packs determined by the skipper's sail choices. Thomson, followed by Golding, aboard 'Ecover' led Stamm, all with full sails, over three minutes ahead of the second group. Local hero Unai Basurko (ESP) headed up the chasing pack all with reefed sails, with Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR) hot on his heels. Unable to make the start today, Tim Troy (USA) and Graham Dalton (NZ) are both frantically making last minute adjustments to their boats and expect to set off later this week.

Weather conditions look set to be brutal as the skippers reach this highly congested shipping area in the early hours of Tuesday morning, which could prove a stressful beginning to a 12,000 mile leg to Fremantle, Western Australia. The first boats are expected to arrive in Fremantle, Western Australia at the beginning of December.

* Graham Dalton announced that he would not make the 1300 start of the Velux 5 Oceans, due to severe damage to his mast. Dalton, who has been plagued with problems throughout his campaign insists he will still start the race, as soon as is practically possible which under race regulations, must be within seven days.

Overnight, Dalton explained in the final skippers press conference, the mast, which was tightly lashed down to four trestles in the boat yard, ready to be lifted back into the boat today, was blown to the ground in a 60 knot gust of wind, cracking the inboard end of the lower starboard spreader. Being especially critical to the mast's structure and strength, the carbon spreader must be carefully reconstructed before Dalton is able to set sail in the 30,000 round-the-world race, especially with the gale force conditions forecast for the first few nights. Dalton however, remains positive, commenting: "I will make it to the startline, it just will not be on Sunday. It just seems like one thing after another, but I see my cup as half full, not half empty."

* American Tim Troy'sOpen 60 'Margaret Anna' at present does not comply with the rules stipulated by IMOCA, the Open 60 class association.

Following a spate of boats capsizing and failing to right themselves in the late 1990s - as occurred to Isabelle Autissier in the 1998-9 edition of the VELUX 5 OCEANS race, Open 60s today must comply with a number of stringent safety requirements. Three of the most fundamental IMOCA rules govern the stability of each boat.

Article D1 of the IMOCA class rules states: "the skipper must physically demonstrate that the boat, once capsized, is capable of self righting without outside help." To comply with this the boat (with its mast out) is turned upside down while in the water by a crane, with the skipper inside the boat. The skipper must then while down below attempt to get the boat to turn back up the right way. This is relatively straightforward for boats with a canting keel, like 'Margaret Anna', as the keel is slowly canted causing the boat to heel over and eventually pop upright.

With all movable ballast deployed (ie with water ballast tanks full or a canting keel fully swung) while tied up alongside, the boat must heel no more than 10 degrees in either direction, and the angle of vanishing stability (AVS) shall not be less than 127.5 degrees. The AVS is the critical point at which when a boat heels it wants to turn upside down rather than come back upright.

'Margaret Anna' failed this final AVS test by just three degrees. Troy has since been in contact with the boat's French designer Bernard Nivelt to establish the best way to solve this. Nivelt has suggested 300kg of lead needs to be added to the keel around the foil. Normally extra lead, if it must be added, is put on to the keel bulb, but Nivelt adding it to the foil will relieve some of the added loads at the crucial spot where the keel enters the hull.

Tim Troy commented: "As far as having extra weight hanging off the bottom of the boat - I am not a designer, nor a yacht builder. I know one thing - I would feel a lot better sailing the boat now the way it is rather than making changes at the last minute and then going out into the Southern Ocean without them being tested. My plan now is to try to get it done."

The start line for competitors remains open for seven days after Sunday. If he can get the work done, then Troy hopes to cross the line before the deadline, but acknowledges his situation is far from ideal. "That would certainly put me behind: that's one of my other concerns - I'd like to be with the pack where there is safety in numbers, but I have worked too long and too hard to give up at this point. We are going to try to work it out somehow."

In addition to complying with IMOCA's AVS requirements, 'Margaret Anna' must also be tested again to prove she can right from a full inversion. This will further delay her departure.

* As the boats are sailing west along the north coast of Spain and then on round Cape Ortegal and Cape Finisterre on Monday, conditions will start to get severe. Covering the 60 mile stretch between the two Capes, the skippers could well find themselves in survival mode. "That'll be a pretty hard stretch because it'll be picking up very rapidly to 30 to 35 knots as an active front approaches. And it also accelerates around the point so it is all conspiring to make it pretty uncomfortable after Saturday night," warns Andrew Cape [a veteran navigator with several Whitbread Round the World Race or Volvo Ocean Races under his belt, now working with Alex Thomson]. "The northwestern side will be very knarly. I'm calling Cape Finisterre, the new Cape Horn. It is going to be a rough one this time and it will be an achievement to get around there. It is a mixture of gusts, swell, acceleration from the mountains. It is a really bad combo of weather they are going to expect on the second day."

The forecast from Cape Finisterre indicates the wind will flick between southerly and southwesterly and could blow up to around 35-40 knots for several days. Cape reckons they are likely to encounter strong headwinds of this type until the time the boats are passing Gibraltar. These start conditions mean that any weaknesses any of the boats may have are likely to show up rapidly.

* Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who used to be the race chairman before handing over responsibility to others and becoming a competitor, said that the forecast was "bloody awful".

The member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and a former seaman with the Merchant Navy, said: "If I saw that forecast and was still the race organiser, I'd be thinking, 'thank God, I am not sailing'."

Knox-Johnston, 67, on board Saga Insurance, knows that he will not be pressing Golding, aboard Ecover, Thomson, on Hugo Boss and Stamm, on Cheminees Poujoulat, for a win. But for a man who lost his wife to cancer, the revitalising effect of racing again is palpable. "Doing it for cathartic reasons? That's a bit a strong," he said. "I'm doing it because I bloody well want to. I think I've one more race left in me."

Golding and Thomson, despite previous successes - such as their respective 2005 Transat and solo 24-hour record achievements - are seeking a career-defining win. If it does not come in this Velux 5 Oceans race, then perhaps in the non-stop 2007-08 Vendee Globe.

Golding was all for ending his solo sailing days at the end of the 2004-05 Vendee Globe, when the keel fell off Ecover on his last day at sea. Yet unfazed, he still finished. And felt good about it, too.

"That's maybe why I carried on, why I decided to try and nail one of these races," he said. -- Tim Jeffery in the Telegraph, see www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/

Current Leaderboard (1300 GMT):
1. Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat)
2. Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss)
3. Mike Golding (Ecover)
4. Kojiro Shiraishi (Spirit of Yukoh)
5. Unai Basurko (Pakea)
6. Robin Knox Johnston (Saga Insurance)

www.velux5oceans.com

SOLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Annapolis, Maryland, USA: The 2006 Soling World Championship ended in a perfect day, two more races were raced and although CAN 230 with Fogh, Cheer, Devries were over early in the first race they won the second one winning the title that he is already planning to defend in 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Another Canadian CAN 225 Peter Hall, Phil Karrigan, Jay Deakin with a second place in the 1st race and a 7th in the second one jumped into second overall, the Argentine team ARG 37 with Gustavo Warburg, Maximo Smith and Miguel Lacour had a bad start but improved through the Championship and finished third overall 4th and a 6th on the last day.

On Friday winds of up to 49 knots hit the fleet, with average winds of 45 knots for more than 30 minutes. Two boats, USA 807 and GBR 161 broached, filled with water, and sank, with their crews being rescued by the Jury. On board were the President, Treasurer and Secretary of the International Sailing Association! The boats could not be recovered.

Final top ten:
1. Hans Fogh / Roger Cheer / Gordon Devries, CAN, 18 points
2. Peter Hall / Phillip Karrigan / Jay Deakin, CAN, 25
3. Gustavo Warburg / Maximo Smith / Miguel Lacour, ARG, 31
4. Roman Koch / Maxl Koch / Gregor Bornemann, GER, 39
5. Peter Galloway / Paul Steinborn / Greg Anthony, USA, 45
6. Bill Abbott / Paul Davis / Joanne Abbott, CAN, 50
7. Jim Medley / Jamie Stewart / Chris Roberts, USA, 52
8. Preben Asbjornrod / Richard Fikse / Christensen Bernt Ole, NOR, 56
9. Pablo Despontin / Pablo Noceti / Ezequiel F Sasso, ARG, 61
10. George Wossala / Nemeth Peter / Karoly Vezer, HUN, 69

Complete results at www.soling.com/results/ShowResults.asp?ID=295
Event site: solingworlds.com

YACHT: A HANDMADE BOOK ABOUT HANDMADE BOATS
The paintings of Classic boats by Michael Frith, renowned artist, are reproduced on watercolour paper, hand-bound with a slipcase evoking the character of the Classic boat; 4 colour endpapers; ribbon head and tail bands; rich mahogany-coloured leather spine and corners, and gold-blocked title, with over 40 paintings and sketches. Contributions from Harry Spencer, MBE, and Dan Houston, editor of Classic Boat magazine, quotes from around the world and a specification of each Classic boat included. Bespoke editions can be created for corporate clients.

Full details at www.spotred.co.uk

CREEPING PAST MESSINA
The pre-race favourite Alfa Romeo may well have seized the lead soon after the start of the Rolex Middle Sea Race, but Neville Crichton spent the first night locked in a close battle with two other canting-keeled SuperMaxis, Morning Glory and Thuraya Maximus.

After a day of good wind, which sped the 68-boat fleet away from Malta towards Sicily at record-breaking pace, the breeze became a good deal more fitful as the fleet edged its way up the eastern coast of Sicily. Bouwe Bekking reported from Hasso Plattner's 86-footer Morning Glory: "We were within half a mile of each Alfa Romeo and Thuraya Maximus, in a bit of a park-up. Alfa sailed for the Sicilian coast, we chose the mainland coast. Alfa found a puff of wind and they disappeared over the horizon, and we did the same to Maximus. Alfa could be 20 miles ahead of us now. It looks like a case of the rich getting richer."

However, being 14 feet shorter in length than her two 100-foot rivals, this represents excellent progress for the German yacht Morning Glory. Bekking was predicting a slow but steady day of progress along the northern coast of Sicily.

Alfa Romeo rounded Stromboli, the active volcano which marks the most northerly point of the 608-mile course, just after 1100 Sunday morning, with Morning Glory around 15 miles astern with Thuraya Maximus another 5 miles back. Lying in 4th place was Volvo Open 70 ABN AMRO ONE, and then a gaggle of yachts that includes last year's winner Atalanta II, the Irish Cookson 50 Chieftain and two Swan 601s.

Chieftain skipper Gerard O'Rourke reported a north-westerly wind direction - very different to Bekking's reading aboard the German SuperMaxi - and which would confirm Bekking's belief that currently the 'rich are getting richer'. However, for a 50-foot yacht O'Rourke is keeping very good company, with the 70-foot Atalanta II just half a mile ahead and the 60-foot Swan Moneypenny about a mile and a half behind.

While the larger yachts have made it through the challenging Strait of Messina relatively easily, the bulk of the fleet has yet to negotiate this narrow and very tidal stretch of water.

With the lack of wind, the smaller and slower yachts in particular will be relying on favourable currents to wash them through. At least the slow progress has given sailors ample chance to watch bright orange lava oozing down the steep sides of a fulminating Mount Etna, thought to be a fairly inactive volcano but which appears to have fired up for the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

At 1600 CET approximately two thirds of the fleet had passed through the Straits of Messina. With around 380 miles to go the record remains in sight of Alfa Romeo, but the average speed that needs to be maintained is creeping over 10 knots.

rolexmiddlesearace.com

MAJOR CHANGES TO SHOSHOLOZA AFTERGUARD ANNOUNCED
South Africa's America's Cup challenger,Team Shosholoza, has announced its final afterguard configuration for 2007.

The new afterguard is as follows: Skipper - Mark Sadler. Helmsman - Paolo Cian. Strategist - Ian Ainslie. Tactician - Tommaso Chieffi. Navigator - Marc Lagesse.

Cian and Chieffi are both Italian professional sailors who joined Team Shosholoza earlier this year as specialist crew/coaches. They raced with the team in the May and June Louis Vuittton Acts as pre-start helmsman and helmsman respectively.

Cian was a helmsman with the Italian Mascalzone-Latino America's Cup Challenger in Auckland in 2002/3 and is currently ranked No 2 on the ISAF world match racing leader board. Chieffi has been a member of the afterguard of four previous America's Cup challenges.

Cian's role as helmsman for Team Shosholoza has been consolidated while Chieffi becomes tactician in place of Californian grand prix skipper/tactician, Dee Smith, who left the team last month.

Ainslie, 41, a three times South African Olympic sailor and formerly a helmsman for Team Shosholoza, becomes strategist, a position he held in the 2004 Acts.

Mark Sadler, 31, winning South African skipper in numerous classes and the second youngest skipper in the 32nd America's Cup, retains his position as skipper. South African Marc Lagesse, 36, remains navigator, a position he has held since the South African America's Cup campaign was launched in 2004.

Captain Sarno also announced that Chieffi and Cian have both been promoted to the position of sports director.

Paul Standbridge retains his role as sailing manager and will work closely with Chieffi and Cian.

Chieffi, 44, who joined the team in March as helmsman/coach, has an impressive history with the America's Cup. He was helmsman in the 1987 Italia campaign, strategist on the 1992 Il Moro Challenge which won the Louis Vuitton Cup and tactician/strategist with Oracle Racing in 2003 which made the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. He was tactician for the Italian +39 Challenge in the 2005 Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts. -- Di Meek

www.teamshosholoza.com

THE OLDEST BOWMAN IN THE WORLD
Jerry Kirby has run the bow for an impressive list; Buddy Melges, Rod Davis, John Bertrand, Chris Dickson, Tom Blackaller, Bill Koch and Paul Cayard to name just a few. He raced in the 1997-1998 Whitbread aboard Chessie Racing and has competed in no less than five America's Cups, winning in 1993. He has competed in the America's Cup for the last 30 years and was sailing onboard 12-metre yachts at the tender age of fourteen. Now, at the age of fifty (no, that's not a misprint), he has just completed the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 as bowman for the Pirates of the Caribbean team.

Louay Habib, editor of www.bangthecorner.com spoke to Jerry at his home in Newport Rhode Island, to find out what makes "the world's oldest bowman" tick.

Q: What sailing experience stands out for you in the Pirates' campaign during the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race?
A: Hands down that has got to be going over 40 knots on the Trans-Atlantic leg. It was the most dynamic sailing experience I have ever encountered. It would be hard to top that. At times we were ripping up the Atlantic Ocean with the possibility of tearing the boat apart, some of the waves we saw were just huge. We were hitting some ridiculous top speeds and achieving some unbelievable numbers in the scheds. Tribute to the abilities of the guys on board who showed what a talented team they were, it was full on pedal to the metal, awesome sailing.

Q: If you could just beam down to anywhere and go sailing, where would you go?
A: I think it would be surfing in the Southern Ocean. There are some beautiful places to sail in the world, but in terms of the most gripping, adrenalin pumping sailing where you have to really max. out on focus, there is nowhere else like it. Sure you can get similar conditions. We did get those, on the trans-Atlantic on The Pirates, but the Southern Ocean has another aspect; its remoteness; mid leg you are thousands of miles from civilization.

Q: How long can you keep racing?
A: You know your time is up when the 'phone stops ringing, but that hasn't happened just yet!

Full interview at volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2006/october/jerrykirby/index.aspx

DEAUVILLE INTERNATIONAL WEEK 2007
After the inaugural edition stirred up keen interest from 500 top level racers, things are looking good for the second edition of Deauville International Sailing Week from 6th to 10th June 2007

Nearly 50 percent international crews, 10 nationalities, 11 rounds raced, around 200 press articles, 1800 institutions and companies invited for Public Relations operations, these are the hard facts from the initial Week.

The 2007 edition will be held from Wednesday 6th to Sunday 10th June 2007, with a practice round on Wednesday 6th, inscriptions possible until Thursday 7th at 12.00 hours, an initial start on Thursday 7th at 14.30 hours, and 4 days of intense racing with earlier returns to shore for an even richer village life.

The Franco-British Race Committee will be renewed under Christophe Gaumont with the support of the Royal Southern Yacht Club. As was the case in 2006, it will rely on the Deauville Yacht Club, the Basse-Normandie League of the FF. Voile (French Sailing Federation), as well as the main Baie de Seine clubs with the SRH du Havre or the SRCO of Caen- Ouistreham. Three to four rounds of racing will be organised.

The Notice of Race and registration details are at www.deauville-week.fr

FEATURED BROKERAGE
1998 Farr CM-60 RIMA, $625,000 usd Located in Newport, RI

Custom built by Carroll Marine of Bristol, Rhode Island, RIMA is a sister ship to NUMBERS and HISSAR. This is an exciting and easily handled yacht with many recent IRC optimizations, a competitive racer! RIMA has excellent handling ability with an emphasis on light-air performance with substantial downwind sail area. RIMA has proven successful under many handicap systems with wins in IMS, IRC ORR and PRHF; speed wins! Carbon fiber composite construction, with incredible of interior space and comfort and a large workable cockpit, RIMA is sturdy and perfect for offshore distance racing as well as buoy racing.

Brokerage through Farr Yacht Sales: www.FarrYachtSales.com

Complete listing details and seller contact information at www.farrdesign.com/brokerage/414_Rima.htm

THE LAST WORD
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it. -- H. L. Mencken

OC Events, organisers of two major IMOCA 60 oceanic events, the new double-handed Barcelona World Race 2007, and the original solo transocean race, The Transat 2008 (ex-OSTAR) www.ocevents.org

Over 80,000 boats for sale on www.boats.com

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