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BUNDOCK AND GLENN ASHBY 2006 TORNADO WORLD CHAMPIONS
San Isidro, Argentina: The Ozzies claimed the title with one race to spare. Local heroes Argentineans Santiago Lange & Carlos Espinola had a brilliant race and are second on the podium. Austrians Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher are third.

The breeze under 6 knots kept the competitors waiting on the water to start Race 9. When the breeze finally picked up the RC had to move the course due to the shallow conditions. By then only 1 race could be sailed and the Australians won the title with one race to spare.

The battle was between local heroes ARG Santiago Lange & Carlos Espinola and AUT Roman Hagara & Hans Peter Steinacher. Both teams started together in the middle of the starting line but the Argentineans went all the way to the right side of the course while the Austrians decided for the middle. Santiago and Carlos rounded in first, followed by Dutch Mitch Booth & Pim Nieuwenhis in second and Spanish Fernando Echavarri & Anton Paz in third. The Austrians rounded seventh.

By then the Argentineans were leading by far and had nobody to threatened their lead. The Spanish took over the second position on the third and last weather mark rounding followed by the French Yann Guichard & Alexandre Guyader in third. The Austrians didn't manage to improve their position and finished 11th.

ARG Santiago Lange & Carlos Espinola crossed the finishing line in great style flying a hull to the hundreds of spectators watching the final race of the 2006 Worlds.

The French had a good campaign placing 6 teams in the top 15 with Guichard & Guyader finishing 5th overall. The Greek team of Iordanis Paschalidis & Constantinos Trigonis were the 4th overall.

Top 10 after 9 races:

1. Darren Bundock & Glenn Ashby, AUS, 23 points
2. Santiago Lange & Carlos Espinola, ARG, 37 pts
3. Roman Hagara & Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT, 41 pts
4. Ordains Paschalidis & Constantinos Trigonis, GRE, 67 pts
5. Yann Guichard & Alexandre Guyader, FRA, 77 pts
6. Johannes Polgar & Florian Spalteholz, GER, 80 pts
7. Fernando Echavarri & Anton Paz, ESP, 89 pts
8. Billy Besson & Arnaud Jarlegan, FRA, 98 pts
9. Enrique Figueroa & Jorge Hernandez, PUR, 105 pts
10. Xavier Revil & Christophe Espagnon, FRA, 108 pts

tornado2006.cnsi.org.ar/hometornado.asp

SEARCH CONTINUES FOR TALL SHIP CREW MEMBER
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: With darkness spreading over the Atlantic late Sunday, "devastated" crew members of a Nova Scotia tall ship were making final attempts to find the daughter of [National Hockey League] Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey.

Laura Gainey, the 25-year-old who recently discovered her passion for sailing the high seas on the square-rigged, three-masted Picton Castle, was swept off the 44-metre barque's rear deck by waves during a powerful storm on Friday night.

Family, friends and former crewmates of the young woman were struggling to contain anxiety and tears Sunday evening, after almost 45 hours of searching by U.S. Coast Guard planes, a civilian ship and the Picton Castle in the area 700 kilometres off of Cape Cod, Mass.

A U.S. Coast Guard news release estimated Sunday evening that search crews "have scoured" 2,400 square kilometres looking for Gainey and planned to continue searching through the night.

www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=canada_home&articleID=2479478

THE GIFT OF WISDOM...
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DRAMAS IN THE ATLANTIC
It has been 24 hours of dramatic activity for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) with two mid-Atlantic rescues involving yachts taking part in the annual cruising event from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Rodney Bay St. Lucia.

Double-handed crew Paul Bourgie (71) and Jacques Clermont (65) both from France, were successfully evacuated at 06:00 UTC today (10 December) from their Bavaria 35 Arnolf. The rescue took place some 48 hours after losing their rudder in a collision with a submerged object, possibly a whale. The ARC yacht Be-Bop-A-Lula, which had reached their position during the night, stood-by until daylight before taking the two French sailors aboard.

Paul and Jacques, tried for 48 hours to control their yacht using emergency rudders which broke and trailing drogues which failed. After becoming exhausted, and increasingly battered by the vicious swell, they decided it would not be possible to save their yacht. Unable to tow them in these conditions, meant that the only option open to Trevor and Norma was an evacuation to the larger Bavaria Be-Bop-A-Lula.

There was further drama Saturday evening when ARC yachts Tracker My Way and Om Shanti picked up a MAYDAY from a Belgian yacht, Allegria, that is not participating in the ARC. One of the double-handed crew on Allegria had suffered a breakdown and jumped over board. In the dark, and with an 8ft-10ft swell running, yachts Tracker My Way, Macnoon and Sunrise began a search, as well as co-ordinating communications with MRCC's Falmouth (UK) and Fort de France (Martinique).

Sunrise also transferred two crew to Allegria to help sail the yacht. After approximately 4 hours, the casualty, a 30-year old Belgian male was recovered onboard the Allegria. Radio medical advice was provided by a doctor sailing onboard ARC yacht Phaedrus, and communication relays using SSB radio via Macnoon and Galateia. Owing to the worsening medical condition of the casualty, an urgent request for medical evacuation was called, and at 1430UTC today (Sunday 10th December), the casualty was transferred to the British warship HMS Lancaster. All yachts involved have now been stood down by the controlling MRCC's and have resumed course to St.Lucia.

* Late Saturday night saw the arrival of the first Cruising Division yacht in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. Woodpecker II, an X562 from Itlay, cruised across the line half an hour before midnight after what she termed "an awesome ride!". All crews are commenting on what a fast year it has been and for many some of the best sailing they have experienced.

A second cruising yacht that had timed their arrival spot on, arrived at dawn. Skipper of Splendid, Keesjan Baartmans, now on his 6th ARC, crossed the line just six and a half hours into his birthday. Having organised a dock party with a steel band for tonight, he and his crew are delighted they have made it in time. When the steering cable broke in 26 knots of wind with the spinnaker up, "we thought we weren't going to make it in time", however the cable was fixed and they were back on course within a few hours. -- Sue Richards

arc.worldcruising.com

ICHI BAN WINS ROLEX ONE DESIGN SERIES
Sydney, Australia: A newcomer, Ivan Wheen's Sputnik, infiltrated the Ichi Ban/Mascalzone Latino Farr 40 duel in today's final three races of the Rolex Trophy One Design Series and looked set to cause a major upset but an uncontrolled gybe on the last run ruined their chances and delivered Matt Allen's Ichi Ban the regatta win.

Ichi Ban, which means 'number one' in Japanese, finished the three day regatta in first position on 22 points - two points ahead of the current Rolex Farr 40 world champions from Italy, Mascalzone Latino, skippered by Vincenzo Onorato.

Sputnik's crew of Olympic 470 gold medallist and tactician, Tom King, Volvo Ocean Race sailor and bow person Abby Seager and some of former World Champion Richard Perini's crew combined with Wheen to put some serious pressure on the world's number one and two.

In the Sydney 38 division, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis' Transfusion continued their near clean sweep of this regatta, picking up eight firsts from nine races to finish with an almost perfect score of 11 points.

In the Sydney 32 division, for which this weekend's three day regatta was their National Championship, pointscore leaders heading into today's final three races, Anna and Martin Cross' If were contemplating victory until they broke their forestay in the final race putting them in second place by one point from Stuart Muirhead, Angus Kench and Bruce Caldwell's Quickie. Third went to John Groves' Reality. -- Lisa Ratcliff & Nicole Browne

Final results:

Farr 40 division
1. Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) 3-2-1-4-2-1-3-4-2
2. Mascalzone Latino (Vincenzo Onorato) 1-6-2-2-1-3-6-2-1
3. Sputnik (Ivan Wheen) 2-5-4-3-4-2-1-1-8

Sydney 38 division
1.Transfusion (Guido Belgiorno-Nettis) 1-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-1-1
2. Acuity (Tony Walls_ 2-2-2-1-3-4-6-3-3
3. The Tavern (Ian Guanaria) 8-3-6-4-2-2-2-2-2

Sydney 32 division
1. Quickie (Stuart Muirhead/Angus Kench/Bruce Caldwell) 2-3-3-1-4-1-3-4-2
2. If (Anna and Martin Cross)1-2-2-5-1-2-1-2-8
3. Reality (John Groves) 3-1-5-2-2-3 -6-3-3

From BYM news:
www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=1296

RICK TOMLINSON CALENDARS
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All the photographs can be viewed on www.rick-tomlinson.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ALL THANKS TO THE CUP
Tom Ehman on the ChallengerCommission.com blog noted this from ValenciaLife.net:

Several sectors of Valencian Industry have estimated that the staging of the Americas Cup races in Valencia is having a much greater effect on the local economy than was first thought. Juan Carlos Gelabert, the head of the Valencian Hotel Industry stated that one out of every four Euros spent by tourists in Valencia is due to the Cup. This is also borne out by Luis Marti of the Valencian Hotel union who added that the Cup had forced several major hotel chains to speed up their implantation of five-star establishments in the City to accommodate the top end of the tourism market that the America's Cup visitors would need. Mr. Marti also encouraged the Valencian authorities to try and ensure that similar projects of equal importance are staged in the City in order that the new range of five-star establishments do not see their investments 'going downhill'. Eloy Dura of the Valencian Construction Industry Association stated that the TV transmission of the America's Cup races is the best advertisement in the world for Valencia. He also added that the technology brought to Valencia by the America's Cup is proving to be highly beneficial not only to the City but to the autonomy as a whole.

This has also been borne out by Jose Salinas, the head of the Valencian Convention Bureau, who stated that foreign tourists who come to Valencia generally spend on average about 2,445 Euros, whilst the average spending for a Spanish visitor is 1,700 Euros.

challengercommission.com
www.valencialife.net

PIANA CUP
Biscayne Bay, Florida: Etchells sailors woke up to some rattling windows on Saturday morning. A northerly breeze came into town blowing outdoor Christmas decorations off homes and palm fronds off trees. By the time Saturday's second race got underway over half a dozen boats were back at the dock working on repairing broken booms, jib downhauls, bilge pumps, outhauls, and a few shrimped spinnakers.

Although the wind direction remained fairly steady at 60-70 degrees throughout the day, the breeze piped up to well over 20 knots during the second race leaving the water a sea foam green. The fleet was whittled down to just over 40 boats by the start of the third and final race of the day. The Etchells team of the day was Andy Beadsworth, Oscar Strugstad and Simon Fry in a brand new boat and borrowed sails. Their sails did not make it through customs, so they scrambled to borrow sails. Their finishes for the day - 1, 1, 3. Apparently, the new sails arrived at Biscayne Bay Yacht Club at 10:45 am, 15 minutes before the start of the first race. While the tired, borrowed sails fit the bill for the day and the crew was eager to break in their new ones on Sunday.

Sunday's winds of 12-15 knots seemed like zephyrs compared to Saturday's blustery breezes. The general comment was that Sunday's conditions were a lot easier. Lighter breeze and new sails did not make a difference in Team Dawn Raid's performance. They demonstrated how to sail consistently in every condition that Biscayne Bay could dish out to them. Once again they got the bullet. With hardly a crinkle in their new sails, they returned to the dock and sat the last race out.

The Beadsworth, Strugstad, Fry crew won the regatta with 6 points, followed by, and the 2006 World Champion team of Jud Smith, Henry Frazer and Mike Craig with 17 points. Jeffrey Siegal, Jeff Madrigali, Willem van Waay and Lauren Gillolly were third with 18 points. Phil Garland, Moose McClintock, Paul Murphy were fourth with 23 points. Chuck Coyer, Bill Hardesty and Mark Jefferies had a consistent second day with two sevenths and finished the regatta in fifth with 25 points. -- Lynn Fitzpatrick

Etchells Class: www.etchells.org

COMEBACK WITH A CAUSE
Two time Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours winning skipper Ludde Ingvall is heading south to Hobart - and this time it's personal.

Given the presence of the three 30m maxis and two Volvo 70s, he's realistic about his chances of a third line honours win. Instead, he's hoping the presence of the 27m maxi he is co-skippering in the race will draw attention to what he calls the "biggest epidemic of modern time".

This year Ingvall was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. "I feel like I am coming out of retirement to bring forward this very important cause which is close to my heart," Ingvall said at today's announcement at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

Adrian Dunphy, who had applied for entry under the name Dodo, has teamed up with Ingvall and they will co-skipper the Simonis - Voogd designed 2004 line honours winning yacht which sailed as Nicorette for that race. His first line honours win in Australia's premier bluewater classic in 2000 was with his previous Nicorette.

Ludde Ingvall will bring some of his Australian Big Boat Racing Team crew to the table and also joining Ingvall and Dunphy's race for a cause is well known yachtsman Andrew Short.

Dunphy and Ingvall have just over two weeks to prepare for the Boxing Day start of the annual 628 nautical mile race from to Hobart. A typical Rolex Sydney Hobart campaign can involve up to six months preparation.

Ingvall says the boat and the crew are race ready but admits a heavy program awaits. The crew will spend the next fortnight crew training and testing the boat before they line up on the front start line in Sydney Harbour at 1.00pm on Tuesday 26 December 2006.

Due to the tight timeframe, at this stage Diabetes' isn't planning to enter tomorrow's CYCA Big Boat Challenge. Their first test sail with the boat's new livery is scheduled for this weekend.

The 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet remains at 82 with the application for entry for Dodo now racing as Diabetes. -- Lisa Ratcliff

rolexsydneyhobart.com

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Our growing business requires an enthusiastic individual to sell our Internet services and add-on products primarily to our core yacht broker and boat dealer customers in the UK. Candidates should be accomplished sales people with at least 2-3 years' experience in the technology/software industry or the marine sector. You must "get" the Internet and understand how it works in a sales context. See www.yachtworld-international.com/vacancies/ to apply.

IMPERIA WINTER REGATTA
Imperia, Italy: "A perfect day for sailing!" - the Jury chairman, German Wolfgang Stenz, said at the end of the last day of Imperia Winter Regatta 2006.

After the bad weather earlier in the regatta, Sunday was a bright sunshine day and an Easterly wind started to blow early in the morning up to 19/20 knots allowing to complete the program: at the end of the day some more four races had been sailed.

All the best internationally ranked took the leadership: in 470 class, male division, Italians Zandona/Trani were the winner of three races winning the overall results ahead of two other Italian teams, Dubbini brothers, second and Bertone/Malagugini, third.

In 470 female division the winner was again an Italian team, Conti/Micol with three first place finishes, also won the overall results ahead of a fleet of 54 boats. They were followed by two Finnish crews, Saarikallio/Lehtonen, second, and Saari/Wulff, third.

In 420 class, male division, the Italian Champion crew Mancinelli Scotti/De Felice won the the regatta after 6 races sailed finishing ahead of Germans Hasselmann/Rojek, second, and the French team Cnuddle/Kerhascoet, third.

Dutch girls Krejzer/van Veen finished in the first position in 420 female division followed by German Lutz/Frisch, second and Italian Ziglioli/Privileggio, third.

Today the young sailors of L'Equipe as well could sail only one race; it was won by the Italian team Telese/Ferraro. -- Laura Jelmini

Full results at www.i-w-r.com/en/home

THE BRITISH CLASSIC YACHT CLUB & SPIRIT YACHTS 2007 REGATTA
Classic Yacht Owners are invited to join the fleet of the British Classic Yacht Club for their Annual Regatta at Cowes 14th-21st July 2007

The event is open to members and non-members and brings together the best in Classic Yachting. For 2007, owners of Spirit Yachts are also invited to enter.

Running alongside the International 6 Metre World Championships, and immediately prior to the International Metre Association Centenary Celebrations, the Regatta is expected to attract yachts from around the world.

It promises to be a unique blend of quality trophy racing and social events in an harmonious and entertaining festival, played in the historic and changeable waters of the Solent, and hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht Squadron.

www.britishclassicyachtclub.org/regatta.htm

THE LAST WORD
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. -- Albert Einstein

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

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