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LOUIS VUITTON CUP - NO SAILING ON DAY ONE
Monday was frustrating for sailors and America's Cup fans alike at the Louis Vuitton Cup. Although it was the first sunny day in nearly two weeks, the wind never materialised to the point where fair racing was assured. Flights One and Two of the Louis Vuitton Cup were postponed for the day, to be raced on the reserve day.

Today, the schedule moves on with previously scheduled Flights Three and Four. Among other matches, the French Areva Challenge is scheduled to take on the home favourites in Desafio Espanol during Flight Three.

Flight Four sees United Internet Team Germany tackle China Team and Desafio Espanol in another big match against Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team. The latter match may provide an early indication of who might end up capturing a Semi Final berth down the road.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast is for similar conditions to yesterday. But there is some cause for optimism. On Monday, the Race Committee nearly started racing in the middle of the afternoon, so just a slight improvement compared to yesterday will allow racing to proceed. -- www.americascup.com

* The rumour mill grinding away:

First there was the winged keel, then came 'plastic fantastic', the 'hula' and now a swinging keel is being touted as a potential America's Cup trump card in Valencia.

It has emerged one of the teams, possibly defender Alinghi, has engineered a breakthrough that could give them a huge advantage.

Yachting commentator Peter Lester says a swinging keel would be significant and it is the equivalent of putting the All Black front row on the deck of the boat and giving it more stability and power.

Team New Zealand believes the hype surrounding a supposed revolutionary keel is being overplayed.

Team New Zealand Director of Sailing Kevin Shoebridge, says he had an inkling some time back that something was in the wind, but a lot of it has been blown out of proportion.

www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=115778

* More on that keel from Sail-World.com:
Over the past couple of days rumour control in Valencia has it that one of the competitors in the 2007 America's Cup has developed a so-called canting keel.

Further investigation has revealed that the keel does not cant, but rather a way may have been found to reduce the amount of keel strut deflection as a 20 tonne bulb is suspended away from the hull of a heeling America's Cup yacht. -- article at www.sail-world.com/nz/index.cfm?nid=32677&rid=6

* The Fish weighs in:

What the ACC Rule does not restrict is the amount of lateral deflection of fixed appendages, and it would be beneficial for any team to be able to restrict that lateral deflection of the keel due to the weight of the bulb. Twenty tonnes at the end of a 4.1 metre deep keel must cause considerable deflection, more perhaps than the one degree 'tilt' that is being bandied about and which would be equivalent to an extra 325kgs on the windward rail.

If any team is able to reduce this by one degree more than the rest, it will be a case of 'game over' early, but the entire presumption that a team has found a loophole in the rule is unlikely and has the decided odour of a red herring. Should, however, the sneaky scientists have found a way - and who knows how their devious minds work - it will make Benny Lexcen's winged keel look very agricultural. -- Bob's editorial at www.sail-world.com

* Excerpt from Stuart Alexander's editorial in the Independent:

Vibrant Valencia has turned into violent Valencia and today it will become vicious Valencia, as the serious business of knockout trials for the 11 challengers for the America's Cup begins.

Gangs of street robbers have invaded the city and are making life a misery for foreigners as security is concentrated on the bases around the newly developed Port America's Cup. The shine on what should be a glittering event is being tarnished.

There are squabbles and wind-ups around the dock. A Maori flag has been flying over the Alinghi compound opposite Team New Zea-land, stirring memories of how they were treated by extremists in 2003.

The America's Cup has always been a cut-throat game and this 32nd defence seems unlikely to break that mould. There are, however, major changes.

What claims, at 156 years and counting, to be sport's oldest trophy is being presented in a new, more populist and commercial guise. The format, which includes a lot of pre-cup racing, was dreamed up by the defender and agreed to by Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle, as challenger of record.

No fewer than 187 crew will dock out each day but only one woman, the American Katie Pettibone, with France's Areva team, is likely to be among them. The strain, both physical and mental, of continuous racing - 20 events over the next 22 days - is made worse by success, including the major hurdle of having to peak twice in less than four weeks for the team which eventually races Alinghi.

That should be either Team New Zealand or BMW Oracle, who are both blooding the newest of their two boats, but either could be sideswiped by unforeseen problems.

The shape of things to come was indicated by what is likely to be the backmarker, the debutant Team China. "We are determined to be in the America's Cup for the long term," said the syndicate head, Chaoyong Wang .

Full article at sport.independent.co.uk/general/article2452437.ece

* Author and sailor Mark Chisnell has an excellent new blog at www.tackbytack.com

Entertaining and enlightening.. a must read. Here's a bit from Monday's live blogging:

" I think the music they're playing to while away the postponement on the English internet commentary is quite possibly going to inspire someone to a random act of violence... but ahhh... it's just stopped.

We have some breeze and a decent shot of a race, keep checking in...

Oh no, the music's back, save me...

If tackbytack.com provides no other service this summer than saving you all from having to listen to this, then it will have been worth it.

Rich Pemberton of UITG (and latterly of the now defunct GBR Challenge), has just pointed out that the music they're playing (to save Andy Green and his mates from endless filling on the English internet radio commentary) is akin to being permanently stuck in a lift.

I'm going to try and find an email address to see if we can do something about this music.... It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't on this endless repeat loop. Do these people have any humanity?

I'm losing the will to live, and it's only the first day... " -- www.tackbytack.com

VELUX LEG THREE START SET FOR WEDNESDAY
Having reviewed all the latest weather models, and following regular consultation with the skippers and their teams, Race Director David Adams today set a new start date and time for the final leg of the Velux 5 Oceans. Leg three to Bilbao (Basque Country) is now scheduled to commence at 10:00 AM local time (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday April 18.

The noreaster storm which has been savagely battering the whole of the Eastern seaboard of the United States since Sunday is expected to intensify overnight into Tuesday before beginning to weaken through the day tomorrow. Race organisers and the sailors felt that a start on Wednesday morning offers the best solution to guarantee the safety of the fleet and allow the competitors to get away as soon as possible from Norfolk, Virginia (USA).

However, the start is still expected to take place in a strong northerly wind with large seas, and event organisers in Norfolk are therefore advising spectators not to go out on the water to watch the yachts depart for Europe. With the start gun set to fire at 10 AM, the boats will leave their home in downtown Norfolk in the early hours of the morning before heading up the Elizabeth River to the line, which will be positioned in open water off the Virginian coast.

The postponed start has also played into the hands of Graham Dalton, who is now less than 1,000 miles from the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. The Kiwi skipper is expected to arrive here Friday, within race rules, and set off for Bilbao after a required 72 hour stop over.

www.velux5oceans.com

SWAN 601 ARTEMIS IS AVAILABLE FOR CHARTER FOR THE 2007 SEASON
This is a rare opportunity to charter this 2005 stunning high performance German Frers-designed Swan. Sporting full carbon composite construction and renowned Nautor Styling, Artemis will provide you with the ultimate racing experience. She is fully race-prepared to the highest standard and raring to go.

Racing with a maximum crew of 16, Artemis is available for Caribbean and UK based race charters and corporate entertainment. She will also be available in the Mediterranean for America's Cup 2007 series viewing.

Please contact Peter Bresnan on +44799097081 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

TEAM GERMANY WINS PREMIERE OF THE BMW SAILING CUP
Valencia, Spain: The Mediterranean metropolis Valencia in Spain is currently the centre of activity for both the best professionals and the most ambitious amateur sailors. After all, this is not only the place where the Louis Vuitton Cup but also the stage for the BMW Sailing Cup World Final, where the top 35 amateur sailors from seven countries competed against each other over the weekend.

First place went to Team Germany, which was described by skipper Dirk Loewe from Berlin as "a great outcome in a unique setting. Competing against the other nations was thoroughly enjoyable." The host country Spain came second, followed by the crew from Great Britain in third. A total of 1,400 participants took part in the inaugural event, which saw qualifying national regattas being held in Spain, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Malta and Denmark. The races took place within the framework of renowned sailing events.

SCHOONER ATLANTIC RECREATED
Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Holland, April 16th 2007. Today the keel was laid of the new schooner ATLANTIC at the Van der Graaf yard. Two keel sections have been built upside down and by turning them the official moment of the laying of the keel was constituted. Seven more sections are being constructed to complete this strikingly large and slender three masted yacht. By the end of the year the motorized vessel will be launched, after which fitting out and rigging is expected to take another two years.

The original yacht was launched on July 28th 1903 and gained enduring fame in 1905 under command of the notorious captain Charlie Barr winning the golden Kaiser's Cup in a race from New York to The Lizard on the south-west coast of England. The cup appeared to be a plated fake later, but the mono hull record time of 12 days, 4 hours and 1 minute stood for 100 years, until it was broken in 2005 by Mari-Cha IV, setting a time of 9 days, 15 hours and 55 minutes in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge.

The ATLANTIC was designed by William Gardner and built by Townsend & Downey, Shooter Island, New York. The schooner measured 56.43 meters (185') over the bows, excluding bowsprit and mizzen boom outboard of respectively 8.76 meters (28'8) and 4.05 meters (13'3). With her beam of 8.85 meters (29') and draft of 5.00 meters (16'5) her displacement was 395 tons. The replica is commissioned by Dutchman Ed Kastelein. He gathered copies of drawings of the original schooner from various archives in the USA, amongst which the MIT Museum in Massachusetts, which Doug Peterson, acting as consulting naval architect, has digitized guaranteeing the authenticity of the lines and floatation. The structural designs for the construction by today's methods and materials, like welded instead of riveted hulls, have been produced by the naval engineering company MasterShip at Eindhoven. They too have completed the task of updating the design without changing an inch to the sacred aesthetics of the original. In the old design for example all 96 steel frames were spaced at 558.8mm (22 inches) and this has been adhered to for the sake of authenticity. The building takes place under Bureau Veritas classification for charter yachts. -- Martin A. Romein and John Lammerts van Bueren

* Photos and line drawings at scuttlebutteurope.com/photos in the Launchings section.

ORC ITC MEETING ON 10-11 MARCH IN VALENCIA
The recent ORC ITC meeting on 10-11 March in Valencia gathered almost all members, most of them involved in the final preparations of top America's Cup Design Teams. The Committee opened with a brief by phone from Chairman Bruno Finzi, to address the criticism towards IMS that has developed for several years and continues to be discussed on most yachting magazines, so indirectly promoting alternative systems. Some areas were identified where it is believed that the IMS "typeforming" is most evident, as the "boxy" hull shapes, the truncated overhangs and the low stability. The Committee analyzed these points at length, one by one.

The "boxy" boats issue was addressed in 2004, when the last important changes to the VPP were implemented. The few new design primarily intended to win IMS races that have been done in 2005 and 2006 have shown a reversal of the trend, with beamier boats and more stability. And in real races standard production boats not specially designed for racing have obtained important successes racing against the "pure" racers. It was also noted that the type of course creates a typeforming that is more powerful than the rule itself. It is not by chance that the AC boats have a "boxy" shape that resembles that of the IMS racers of a couple of years ago. What these boat have in common is the predominance of Windward/Leeward type of course. Conversely, the boats intended to race offshore with a wide variety of reaching have much beamier, flared hulls. It is a fact that the optimized IMS boats that dominated in w/l course had serious problems in defending their rating in offshore courses with a lot of reaching.

To reinforce the committee belief that IMS currently is not typeforming too much versus low stability boats, COPA DEL REY 2006 results were re-scored merging the TP52 class with the "Open" IMS and except for the long distance races, in all w/l races where the results could be compared being the race sailed around the same course, TP52 were on top of the fleet, winning most of the races. (TP52 are certainly considered stiff boats)

Regarding the length, the scheme used to derive the "sunk" length (LSM4) was again discussed. There is no doubt that the current scheme to evaluate the dynamic length, where the amount of sinkage is determined purely by a percentage of length, and is independent from the displacement gives an advantage to the heavy boats. There are several possibilities to modify this scheme, following some studies that were performed in the past where the displacement would also be taken into account, and further developing the dynamic scheme that was presented by Axel Mohnhaupt in 2004.

The committee revised the preliminary results of wind tunnel tests recently performed last February at "Politecnico di Milano" facilities where, among other sails configurations, some Code 0 sails were tested (it is one of the first times this kind of sail has been tested in a wind tunnel). The test were performed for two weeks on a systematic series of windward sails (a total of 130 sailing points were recorded), which are expected to return sufficient data for the new aero model and depowering scheme. The wind tunnel test database will be used to perform a parallel research on two different models:

1. The current IMS model will be updated with the new data set that could take into account jib overlap, mainsail roach and fractionality

2. The proposed new model will be revised and implemented in the VPP

The parallel developement of the two approaches could be useful in debugging the new model updating at the same time of the old one, and will avoid any big disruption on existing fleet when implemented. In fact ITC could decide to adopt a "step by step" implementation, that is to implement for 2008 only the new data using the old model and then implement the new model in 2009. ITC wants to thanks NORTH SAILS ITALY for the support given in sails supply and sail trimming in the person of Gigio Russo, who spent several days in the wind tunnel trimming sails. The ITC will meet again in September, but the work will continue before then to prepare different alternatives and perform test runs with the new module developed by Davide Battistin.

OFFSHORE CHALLENGES IS HIRING
The Offshore Challenges Sailing Team, part of the OC Group owned by Mark Turner and Ellen MacArthur, are looking to employ a Media/Sponsor Account Manager for their IMOCA Open 60 sailing team, and a Senior Account Director to manage the new Title Sponsor to the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team.

Media/Sponsor Account Manager
Candidates must have a full range of skills covering both project management and media & communications. On the project management side the candidate will be required to develop feasible sporting and sponsorship plans in consultation with the sponsor and sailing team - and then will need to oversee delivery of these plans. On the media side the candidate will be required to manage a European media and race communications programme in its entirety to meet the objectives of the sponsors, competitors, public and media. In both respects, a knowledge of ocean racing will be very valuable.

Candidates must speak fluent Spanish and English (French also useful), be of senior management level, be willing to be based initially in Cowes, Isle of Wight and then in Barcelona in Spain between October 2007 to February 2008.

Please email letter of application and CV to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it stating "Media Account Manager Job Application" in subject title of email.

Senior Account Director
The key aspect of this role will be servicing a new major account, working closely with the client and the sailing team to ensure sponsorship strategies are developed and implemented effectively to meet and exceed objectives - and to ultimately grow the account over time. At the same time the role will involve working closely with the wider Commercial Team on maintaining existing smaller relationships and on developing new business - pitching for new accounts, promoting the company to potential clients and negotiating at a senior level. The nature of this role is such that the candidate will need to work predominantly from the company HQ in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, plus be willing to travel to London and beyond where necessary.

We are looking for someone with marketing / sponsorship experience within the sports field (knowledge of sailing would be an advantage) or related industries in the UK and Europe. A broad contact base with brands, rights holders and media owners would be an advantage, as would a good working knowledge of French. The successful candidate will also have a proven track-record of business development, client services and negotiation skills at a senior level, staff management experience plus general business planning skills.

This is a great opportunity to join a growing company as well as the chance to be instrumental in the company's continuing development in the UK and Europe.

Please email letter of application and CV to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it stating "Senior Account Manager Job Application" in subject title of email.

RCIYC COMMODORE'S CUP RACE - JERSEY TO ST MALO
Very light south-westerly winds greeted the seventeen boats that came to the line on Good Friday morning for the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club's annual race from Jersey to St Malo. Starting one hour after high water, in just sufficient breeze to keep way on the boats, the best plan was to keep to the west of St Aubin's Bay to make the most of the south-going tide. Boats that chose to tack into the Bay found that they ran out of wind, under the influence of the north-going tide, and had to watch as those more fortunate crept past the Grunes du Port buoy to set off on the mile-long beat to the Passage Rock buoy. The back markers eventually cleared the Bay about an hour after the start by which time the leaders were well past the Passage Rock and heading south under spinnaker.

With the wind staying light but constant and the weather very fair, boats had an enjoyable spinnaker run well past the Southwest Minquiers buoy with just one gybe to port to take them to the finishing line off the Grand Jardin lighthouse.

Top three, IRC Class - Commodore's Cup
1. Contango, S Pearl & Partners
2. Jackana, D Jones
3. Abracadabra, R Perkins

RCH Class - Cook Salver
1. Lisia, M Tucker
2. Cassiopeia, Chris Weeks
3. Canders, J Rogers

www.rciyc.org

BERNARD VOISIN
Bernard Voisin - famed for Gregory Peck and Hornblower connections - is laid to rest Thursday, 12 April 2007.

Yesterday the funeral of Bernard Voisin took place in Villefranche-sur-Mer, where he was well known as the owner of the celebrated Chantier Naval Voisin, which was founded by his uncle Gabriel, in 1928, and closed in 1988. Bernard died, peacefully at home, on April 7, aged 86.

The Voisin yard, once the town's biggest employer, became famous, worldwide, when it was responsible for turning a derelict fishing boat into an 18th century warship for the film Captain Hornblower, starring Gregory Peck.

Later, Bernard was involved with another film star, when Errol Flynn brought his legendary schooner Zaca to the yard.

Two of Bernard's sons, Thierry and Pascal, are in the large yacht industry.

BYM News: www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=6208

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. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Jean-Michel Gaigne: To Manfred Schreiber: You're right. Robert Nagy, who is competing in the BPE singlehanded transat race is the famous sailboarder and former olympic sailor. He has been sailing Figaros since last year, and finished 16th in the Solitaire du Figaro Race in 2006.

THE LAST WORD
Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter. -- William Ralph Inge

OC Events, www.ocevents.org , 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) plus the Extreme 40 Sailing Series for The iShares Cup.

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