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SYDNEY-HOBART FLEET WARNED OF GALES
The Sydney to Hobart yacht race fleet has received a weather warning just six days out from the start, with possible gale force southerlies off the New South Wales coast on Boxing Day.

The Bureau Of Meteorology expects a low pressure system to develop to the east of Bass Strait on Christmas Day, leading to fresh to strong south west to southerly winds around Sydney on Boxing Day.

"It is still possible at this range that the low pressure system will be closer to the New South Wales coast, and if that eventuality unfolds then there would be a period of gale force winds on Boxing Day for the start of the race," said Bureau Of Meteorology regional director Barry Hanstrum.

A southerly swell generated by the low pressure system will increase as the fleet heads south, Hanstrum said.

Eighty yachts are entered in the 62nd Sydney To Hobart race starting on Sydney Harbour at 1pm on Boxing Day. -- Sydney Morning Herald: www.smh.com.au/news/Sport/SydneyHobart-fleet-warned-of-gales/2006/12/20/1166290589020.html

* The New Zealand yacht Maximus remains out of water just days out from the start of the Sydney Hobart race on Boxing Day.

The 30-metre yacht was late in arriving in Sydney and conections don't expect it to be in the water until Friday.

Co-owner and skipper Charles St Clair Brown says they've had to pull it all to bits and they're trying to put it all back together again in a limited time frame.

St Clair Brown says there are also adjustments that have to be done at the same time, setting it up for a different kind of conditions, so they've got their work cut out.

Brown, who recently raced against Wild Oats XI in the European summer and will be contesting his fourth Hobart, expects Skandia and Wild Oats to be formidable opponents. -- Radio New Zealand, www.radionz.co.nz/news/sport/200712201450/maximus_still_out_of_water

* Lou Abrahams, skipper of Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race entrant Challenge, will compete in his 44th consecutive race to Hobart this year to equal the skippers' race record set by his late, great sailing friend John Bennetto.

Lou first sailed to Hobart as a 36 year old crew member on Winston Churchill in 1963 and achieved the rare double of two overall wins in Australia's greatest offshore race in 1983 and 1989.

Only five men have reached the 40 race milestone in the event's 62 year history. This year, two more, Tony Ellis, crewman on Ragamuffin and Bill Ratcliff, co-skipper of Scrumba, will join the prestigious group. Tony Cable of Philips Foote Witchdoctor is the next heir apparent for the record and will rack up his 43rd race this year.

www.rolexsydneyhobart.com

COUNTDOWN STARTS FOR 2006 GOVERNOR'S CUP
With just over a week to go before the start of the 2006 Governor's Cup, participants are busy with final preparations for the 1,695 nautical mile crossing between Cape Town and the island of St Helena. Fourteen yachts will set sail from Table Bay on Thursday, 28 December, in celebration of the biannual event's tenth anniversary.

The inaugural Governor's Cup race took place in 1996 to promote the tropical island of St Helena and to maintain the close ties that exists between the island community and South Africa. The island is heavily involved in youth sailing development and a group of young sailors are sent to South Africa every two years to train for and participate in the Governor's Cup.

The race for line honours is definitely on with Chris Frost, commodore of the Royal Natal Yacht Club, entering South Africa's latest ocean racer Prodigy in an attempt to shatter the current crossing record of 7 days 20 hours 24 minutes set by Shackattack in the 2004 race. The 54-feet Simonis Voogd design will continue to the Caribbean to participate in Antigua Week before hitting the international racing circuit.

Veteran sailor Billy Leisegang will return to defend his claim on the Crystal Governor's Cup. Leisegang has won the handicap honours for the past two races and is set to repeat this performance on his 35-foot Simonis design Our Dianne, with a mixed crew of three South Africans and three "Saints".

Tom Brown will be racing in his recently launched Miura 2 prototype Raging Bull. Brown conceptualized and motivated the new design in conjunction with the German-based company Berckemeyer Yacht Design. The race will see the original Miura-class yachts chasing for a R10 000 prize and a newly presented trophy.

The fleet will be accompanied by the RMS St Helena, a passenger/cargo ship that is the island's lifeline and regularly shuttles between Cape Town and St Helena and once a year to Britain. The 2007 Governor's Cup is organized from the False Bay Yacht Club in Simon's Town, under the auspices of the St Helena Yacht Club and South African Sailing. The Governor's Cup Race is sponsored by Miura Yachts International. The race is open to all classes and the main fleet consists of monohull IRC class yachts incorporating international racing and cruising boats.

The cut-off for the race is 12H00 on Saturday, 13 January 2007. -- Ronelda Visser

Editor: website at www.thegovernorscup.com offline at press time.

DOYLE SAILS AVAILABLE DURING SHOW
Doyle Sails will not be exhibiting at the London Excel Boat Show, a decision based upon location, attendance and a belief that the industry cannot support, sensibly, two major shows a year.

They will however be operating special discount structures and are available for personal appointments at the venue.

Doyle's Stratis membrane load path technology achieved significant success in racing and blue-water cruising, providing excellent durability and shape retention. The UK loft also supply DuraSail high quality cruising sails, competitively priced. FastTrack repair, re-cuts, laundry and winter valeting is a speciality and advice is given on hardware retro-fits, covers - StackPack systems, manufacture, trim and design.

Arrange to meet a consultant at Excel by calling 023 8033 2622 / 07775 671162 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.doylesails.co.uk

STEVE JARVIN MOTORS SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL REGATTA
The final day of racing at the Steve Jarvin Motors Sydney International Regatta and the predicted southerly arrived early. The first fleet headed out to a 15 knot southerly which quickly built to over 25 knots by11:30am.

A number of fleets had competitors return to shore including three of the 49er entries who had damage to their masts after gusts of 30knots sweep across the race course.

Nicky Bethwaite and her crew Karyn Gojnich and Angela Farrell won the Yngling class convincingly taking the gun in all seven races sailed. Katie Spithill with crewmembers Nina Curtis and Sarah Wilmot sailed consistently to take second overall and Nicole Douglass, Ruth McCanance and Helen Impey took the bronze in the six boat fleet.

Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin managed to hold off multiple Olympian Chris Nicholson and Euan McNicol to take the gold in the 49er fleet by one point. Victorians Will Phillips and Jon Newman maintained their third place position after strong winds caused the race committee to send the fleet ashore and wrap up sailing for the class.

Martin Gaveriaux, sailing for France, dominated the RS: X Board men's fleet and having to drop a second place for an overall score of seven points. New Zealander Josh Nixon finished in second place with Australian Michael Lancey in third. Allison Shreeve sailed well to win the RS: X women's class from Alisha Kawalla and Western Australian Belinda Stowell.

Recent winners of the 470 National Championship Queenslanders Mathew Belcher and Nick Behrens have won the 470 men's class. The Swiss team of Tobias Etter and Felix Steiger are on equal points but claim second place on a countback from world champions Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page.

Kathrin Kadelbach and Frederike Ziegelmayer from Germany won the 470 women's fleet with Alana Slingsby and Tessa Parkinson from Western Australia taking the silver and South Australians Natalie Dewing and Catherine Shanks rounding out the podium.

In the Laser Radial fleet Australian Sarah Blanck sailed into the top spot on day two of competition and held off the rest of the fleet to win the event. Richard Bott finished in second place with Lizzie Vickers from Great Britain finished in third after finishing fourth and second in today' s races. Mexican Tania Elias-Calles Wolf finished the regatta on 57 points and in seventh place overall.

The 61 boat Laser fleet raced two races today to finish off the event with Tom Slingsby finally winning the Laser class in the Sydney International Regatta. Slingsby won by one point after holding off a strong challenge from Vasilj Zbogar from Slovenia. New Zealander Andrew Murdoch, who has won the Laser class in this event previously, finished in third. -- Sam Crichton

www.sailsydney.org.au

BENT ON DESTRUCTION
Lia Ditton, Britain's one and only professional sailor-artist, appears hell-bent on destruction. The yacht the 26-year-old art graduate raced in the Route du Rhum is to be cut in half -- mast, winches, keel, engine and all -- and turned into two art exhibits. She's calling it 'The Divorce.'

Meanwhile, she's been dreaming up a new project involving a series of 6.5m Minis. The unique twist is that they would be built to sink. The working title is 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen'.

These "Mini sinkers" as she calls them will be made of materials that will degrade in sea water, and Lia says she'll be undertaking the kamikaze mission to sail them until they disappear underneath the waves.

Excerpt from Elaine Bunting's blog at www.ybw.com/yw/blog/elaine_bunting.html

ROGERS YACHT DESIGN REQUIRES
FULL-TIME SENIOR YACHT DESIGNER.
A vacancy has arisen for a full time yacht designer with a minimum of 8 years experience, specifically with grand prix race boats. The successful candidate must be well versed with Microstation, Maxsurf, Hydromax, Rhino and Win Design and have excellent organisational skills and the ability to work on their own initiative. Evidence of project leadership will also be necessary.

Please send CV and relevant references to Rebeca Rogers: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it www.rogersyachtdesign.com

AWARDS COUNTDOWN
Winners of the Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year and Raymarine Young Sailor of the Year will be announced during the Collins Stewart London Boat Show, January 2007.

Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year finalists include 470 World Champions Nic Asher & Elliot Willis, the first British team to win the 470 World Championship in nearly 20 years; Dee Caffari, who earlier this year set a new world record as the first woman to sail single handed, non stop around the world against prevailing winds and currents; and Steve Curtis, who has won an unbelievable eight Class 1 World Championships and is considered the best international powerboat racer of all time.

Finalists in the young sailor category include Dylan Fletcher, the 18 year old who claimed the 2006 Under-19 29er World Championship and has now jumped into the Skandia Team GBR Olympic Development Programme; 18 year old Katie Miller for her single handed circumnavigation of the UK; 17 year old Tom Phipps, double gold medallist at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship and one of the most successful British youth sailors; and young watersports instructor 16 year old Dan Simpson.

Winners of both awards will be voted for by the Yachting Journalists' Association (YJA). Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year will be announced at an awards ceremony at midday on Tuesday 9 January 2007 at The Painted Hall, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

Raymarine Young Sailor of the Year will be will be announced at 4.15pm, Saturday 6 January at the Collins Stewart London Boat Show in the Cockpit Theatre. RYA Regional Winners will also be presented with their awards at this ceremony.

Dame Ellen MacArthur is the outgoing Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year title holder. Craig Paul, Sam Coombs and James Hopson are the outgoing Raymarine Young Sailor of the Year.

Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year and Raymarine Young Sailor of the Year awards recognise British sporting excellence in power or sail and acknowledge achievement - such as breaking a world record, a phenomenal win, overcoming adversity, or showing exceptional bravery and courage.

YACHTWORLD SALES OPPORTUNITY
Yachtworld is the leading online boat sales portal, receiving approximately 4 million visitors each month to its websites www.yachtworld.com and www.boats.com . Our goal is to facilitate the matching of buyers and sellers of boats, boating equipment and boating services and we currently help our members to generate boat sales in excess of 40 million pounds per month. 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.

SHORT TACKS
* Paul Cayard's book 'The Black Pearl - A Pirate Ship' is now on sale. Read about the adventures of the Pirates of the Caribbean team as they raced around the world in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005/06. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to support youth sailing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Printing was made possible through the combined support of Belvedere Cove Foundation, St Francis Yacht Club and Cayard Sailing. Copies are $25 (plus shipping) and available on http://cayardsailing.com

* Sail Training International has produced a 27 minute documentary film about the 50th Anniversary Tall Ships' Races and their history. Entitled Young at Heart, the film is dazzling story of fun and adventure, teamwork and competition, international friendship and understanding and all the glamour of the Tall Ships. It is available on DVD to purchase through our website on www.sailtraininginternational.org for just 7 pounds.

* The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has published, in its December 2006 newsletter (starting on page 14), a story of the start of the Star Class on the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland, USA), including the 1929 International Champions' story and Patsy Raskob who helmed in the 1932 International Championship at the age of 12.

See starclass.org/PDF/CBMMO_Fall06.pdf

* The British sailing team's 'Sail for Gold' brand is set to hit the newsstands in the New Year, with Skandia Team GBR announcing a new publication tracking their build up to the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games.

Published annually and carrying news and developments from the team, the boats, preparations and competitor profiles, the 96-page 'Sail for Gold' bookazine will be the essential guide to Skandia Team GBR, and is aimed at all with an active interest in sailing and marine sports, or simply those who just want to find out more about the nation's most successful Olympic sport.

Due to be officially launched in March 2007 at the RYA Dinghy Sailing Show, Alexandra Palace, you can pre-order your copy of 'Sail for Gold' now through the RYA web shop a. www.rya.org.uk/Shop/ (product code G64) or during the London Boat Show at ExCel from 5-14 January at the RYA Stand (B001).

* New video on the RS:X at the class website: www.rsxclass.com

* Get ready for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race by downloading and installing Google Earth and the relevant file for viewing positions during the race. See rolexsydneyhobart.com/editorial.asp?key=2212

If you have never experienced Google Earth, make sure you have at least an hour to spare jumping around the planet. It is simply astonishing.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Letters are limited to 350 words, and you may only write a single letter on a topic. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published.

* From Mike Sharpe: Canting keels eh.

Well it took less time than I thought, but now because of something nobody needs, a canting keel, I read in this edition about the split fleet for Cowes.

Jeez Loiuze! Is it true that the reeeealy rich guys are so fearful of losing that they need to keep re-inventing the boats to keep sailing in smaller fleets so they up their odds of winning? Don't tell me it's about speed; buy a catamaran. It's about silver (ware).

It started with the first guys to get an edge with carbon spars. That created 2 divisions for quite a while. So we lost a few boat owners to the money chase, who cares eh? I know Neville Creighton fought off the urge to go for the keel 'thingie' until he had no choice.

Canting keels eh. What will the 'deep pocket boys' come up with next to keep them out in front? What will come out of the hat next that is so useless, (but exclusive and expensive), that some bloke will ante' up for his season of glory? It's going to be interesting, that's for sure. Useless, but interesting. One way to keep the lid on costs would be for a measurer to 'just say no'! Might keep a few more boat owners around. That'd be nice.

What's that about big fish in small ponds you say?

THE LAST WORD
The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. -- Robert Frost

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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