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LOUIS VUITTON CUP - WIND (FINALLY) AND A BIG UPSET
Sea breeze conditions returned to Valencia on Tuesday allowing two full flights of races to be completed at the Louis Vuitton Cup. There was plenty of action on the race course where the South African Team Shosholoza earned an impressive victory over Luna Rossa Challenge. The Italian Luna Rossa team began the day undefeated, but eventually lost both races on the day, dropping their second match of the afternoon to BMW ORACLE Racing.

By the end of racing on Tuesday, it was the American boat that would be at the top of the table, undefeated in five matches.

As expected, the battle to be included in the top four challengers is fierce. Only the top four will qualify to advance to the Semi Finals and three teams currently occupy that spot, with Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, Victory Challenge and Shosholoza all on 8 points from 3 Louis Vuitton Cup victories. The home team, Desafio Espanol 2007, sits one point further back.

* It was an incredible day for South Africa's Team Shosholoza in Valencia, Spain today. After three and a half years of gruelling racing and training Shosholoza finally pulled off the big one by slaying Italian giant Luna Rossa and then going on to take a second victory of the day off China team. The two magnificent wins have put Team Shosholoza fourth overall in a three way tie with the Italian Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team and Sweden's Victory Challenge after five flights of races in Round Robin 1 of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Today's victory over Luna Rossa, a former Louis Vuitton Cup winner and the team that South Africa bought their first training boat from in March 2004, was greeted with roars and cheers at sea and on shore as phone calls, emails and text messages of congratulations poured in to the team's base in the Port America's Cup from both fans and opposition teams. The sailors were showered with champagne as they docked and smothered with hugs and kisses.

Of the crew of 17 on board Shosholoza today 13 are South Africans with no previous experience in the America's Cup as opposed to Luna Rossa who has a top drawer international crew with multiple AC experience and a stated budget of 90 million euros opposed to South Africa's 23. -- www.teamshosholoza.com

* I think things are going to deteriorate between America's Cup Management and the challengers pretty quickly. Another day or two lost and the challengers will be in quite a bit of trouble with their schedule. This is the first Cup where the challenger series is being run by an entity appointed by the defender. It used to be bad enough just having the Cup itself run by the defender. ACM's unwillingness to accommodate and cooperate with the challengers is terrible. It is their series after all. The point of the Louis Vuitton Cup is to select the challenger who will face Alinghi in the finals. How can you have that series controlled by a sister company to Alinghi? If things were going well and fair then it may be acceptable, but they are not. -- Paul Cayard, www.cayardsailing.com

* It's going to be chainsaw time (once again) down in the Luna Rossa shed this evening as the failings of Luna Rossa were brutally exposed by the South Africans in the first flight of the day today. Slab sides and a slightly dodgy sail programme saw Jimmy Spithill unable to claw back from a poor first leg and the South Africans held on for a very big 36 second win. An already fuming Bertelli will be apoplectic this evening...

Not known for his mild-mannered temperament, Patrizio Bertelli the boss of Prada and Luna Rossa syndicate head has been sticking up for the event he loves by taking the AC Management to task over their shocking running of the event. Rumour has it that he spent some 45 minutes dressing down playboy Alinghi head Ernie Bertarelli, demanding answers to the shambolic state of affairs. We lost one billionaire - Craig McCaw - after the last Cup will the AC Management scare away another in the form of Mr Bertelli? The sport and the event can't afford to lose such a great character... -- From Magnus Wheatley's decidedly edgy blog, rule69blog.com

* 'There is no Second' the Seahorse guide to the America's Cup is written by: Paul Cayard, Russell Coutts, Dennis Conner, Chris Dickson, Tim Jeffery, Tom Schnackenberg, Paul Bieker, Hamish Ross, John Bilger.

Scuttlebutt and her sister title Scuttlebutt Europe have been given exclusive access to 20,000 free digital preview copies of this title - download it fast, when the meter hits 20K the shutters will come down! Get your copy at www.seahorse.co.uk/americas/eu/

Current standings:

1. BMW Oracle Racing, 13 points
2. Emirates Team New Zealand, 10
3. Luna Rossa Challenge, 9
4. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team, 8
4. Victory Challenge, 8
4. Team Shosholoza, 8
7. Desafio Espanol, 7
8. Areva Challenge, 5
9. United Internet Team Germany, 3
10. +39 Challenge, 2
11. China Team, 1

Race schedule for Wednesday:
Flight 6:
1. China Team vs. Desafio Espanol 2007
2. Team Shosholoza vs. Emirates Team New Zealand
3. Bye - BMW Oracle Racing
4. Areva Challenge vs. Luna Rossa Challenge
5. United Internet Team Germany vs. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
6. +39 Challenge vs. Victory Challenge

Flight 7:
1. BMW Oracle Racing vs. Areva Challenge
2. Luna Rossa Challenge vs. +39 Challenge
3. Bye - Victory Challenge
4. United Internet Team Germany vs. Emirates Team New Zealand
5. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team vs. China Team
6. Desafio Espanol 2007 vs. Team Shosholoza

www.americascup.com

GROUPAMA III ON FIRST RECORD ATTEMPT
Franck Cammas' new Groupama III multihull crossed the start line at Cadiz Tuesday at 7:47:17 local time enroute to San Salvador on its first record attempt, the Discovery Route. Named after the historical track taken by Christopher Columbus, Cammas and his team are gunning for the record currently held by Steve Fossett and his maxi-catamaran Playstation: 9 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes and 18 seconds. To achieve a new record, Groupama III will need to arrive at the finish line by May 3 at 21:17:35.

For this first record attempt on the Columbus Route, Franck Cammas and Franck Proffit brought eight talented sailors on board Groupama 3. In spite of different backgrounds - from Olympic multihull to oceanic trimaran and from America's Cup to Volvo Ocean Race - the maxi trimaran crew is a homogeneous and harmonious group.

The sailing crew is divided in a three watch system. On each watch, three men are on duty on deck; three are standing by, ready to help if a manoeuvre is necessary; and three are off duty, resting completely. This system is organized around three watch captains: Franck Cammas, as well as Franck Proffit and Steve Ravussin, two well-known sailors by the Groupama trimarans skipper for having sailed double-handed with both of them on board his 60'.

Then, each watch is also composed by a bowman and a second helmsman. To fill theses positions on the Columbus Route record, Franck chose as second helmsman: Loic Le Mignon, permanent member of Team Groupama, Sebastien Audigane and Frederic Le Peutrec. Former dinghy sailors, the three men have a sensibility at the helm essential to the good performances of the maxi trimaran. As bowman, Franck chose: Pascal Blouin, Groupama 3's boat captain, Bruno Jeanjean and Ronan Le Goff, sailors in great demand for their experience. Ronan is, with Sebastien Audigane, one of the Jules Verne Trophy holders on board Groupama 3.

The Dutch Marcel Van Triest will also be part of the team. During records, Marcel will be the navigator and thus "off watch". Responsible for receiving the weather reports and analyzing them, he is completely dedicated to routing, trying to find the most efficient route for Groupama 3. -- www.cammas-groupama.com

RAINBOW JACKET BY MURPHY&NYE
As visitors to Port America's Cup over the last weeks have noted, it's not always shorts and t-shirt weather here in Valencia.

The 32nd America's Cup webstore has the answer to the many, varied winds of Valencia with the great jacket and gilet range by exclusive clothing licensee, Murphy&Nye.

The Rainbow jacket, based on Murphy&Nye's famous Waikato jacket, is the perfect wind and raincheater for onshore use and inshore sailing. Available in both men's and women's cuts, please view the Rainbow and many more styles at:

Men's: americascupstore.com/cart/stock.asp?id=122
Women's: americascupstore.com/cart/stock.asp?id=182

SEMAINE OLYMPIQUE FRANCAIS
Despite the light wind persisting in Hyeres, the 6 racing committees succeeded in hosting 36 races bringing most classes up to date with their schedule.

In the classes split in groups, today was the last qualification stage. The finals will start tomorrow and the fleets will be spread in Gold, Silver, Bronze and Emerald groups depending on their fleet size. With the worst race dropped from the overall results, a few changes could appear in the classifications. Only the Lasers have an insufficient number of races to allow a discard.

The same conditions are expected Wednesday. The easterly wind due for Thursday could come earlier and upset the sea breeze in the afternoon.

Top three by class:
RS:X Men
1. Ho Chi Ho, HKG, 8 points
2. Tom Ashley, NZL, 9
3. Yin Chan King, HKG, 10

RS:X Women
1. Bryony Shaw, GBR, 7
2. Blanca Manchon, ESP, 7
3. Yin Jian, CHN, 9

49er
1. John Pink / Simon Wheeler, GBR, 18
2. Chris Draper / Simon Hiscocks, GBR, 18
3. Marcus Baur / Hannes Baumann, GER, 23

470 Women
1. Giulia Conti / Giovanna Micol, ITA, 8
2. Stefanie Rothweiler / Vivien Kussatz, GER, 19
3. Ingrid Petitjean / Nadege Dourouxm FRA, 34

470 Men
1. Pierre Leboucher / Vincent Garos, FRA, 13
2. Nicolas Charbonnier / Olivier Bausset, FRA, 13
3. Gideon Kliger / Udi Gal, ISR, 22

Tornado
1. Oskar Johansson / Kevin Stittle, CAN, 22
2. Roman Hagara / Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT, 28
3. Johannes Polgar / Florian Spalteholz, GER, 31

Yngling
1. Ekaterina Skudina, RUS, 22
2. Sally Barkow, USA, 26
3. Ulrike Schuemann, GER, 30

Sonar
1. John Robertson, GBR, 9
2. Vasilis Christoforo, GRE, 9
3. Jostein Stordahl, NOR, 16

Laser
1. Michael Blackburn, AUS, 8
2. Bradley Funk, USA, 16
3. Igor Lisovenko, RUS, 18

Laser radial
1. Elin Maria Samdal, NOR, 11
2. Jo Aleh, NZL, 25
3. Anna Tunnicliffe, USA, 25

Finn
1. Jonas Hoegh Christensen, DEN, 15
2. Edward Wright, GBR, 21
3. Marin Misura, CRO, 29

2.4
1. Jens Als Andersen, DEN, 9
2. Thierry Schmitter, NED, 11
3. Helena Lucas, GBR, 14

hyeres.ffvoile.net

EUROSAF EUROPEAN JUNIOR TEAM RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
The Eurosaf European Junior Team Racing Championship 2007 Team Race will be something special!

The Venue will be Torbole, in the north side of the Lake Garda (ITALY), well connected with the Brennero highway.

The Club is ambitious to organise top sport events and so they decided to get into the international team racing circuit as well. So far there is experience in running fleet races and certainly this Team Race will be a very funny experience.

The Event will be organized in cooperation with the Italian Sailing Federation and Eurosaf.

On the first day (Jun 1) there will be a Team Race Clinic with Bruce Hebbert (GBR) as teacher so, any level of competitor will be welcome.

More information at the club web side www.circolovelatorbole.com

HIGH DEMAND FOR LIGHTWEIGHT, BREATHABLE CLOTHING
To meet these needs, Camet International has introduced a new line of sportswear to satisfy it's sports-minded and outdoor enthusiast customers. The collection offers an array of possibilities from highly technical products that scream "performance," to lightweight, wrinkle-free products for on-the-water and off-the-water activities. We look for fabrics that move perspiration away from the body, dry quickly, and are wrinkle-resistant; characteristics sought by adventurers and sailors alike. The summer line not only serves a purpose, it is also very fashionable. With solid color schemes, Hawaiian prints, and multi-functional designs.

Check them out at www.camet.com

RAYMARINE REGATTA REACHES ITS FINALE
The weekend of 21st/22nd April was certainly a busy one for Warsash Sailing Club with a full schedule of racing in the sixth week of the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series as well as the culmination of the Spring Championships for sportsboats and final meeting in the Big Boats Series. All this added up to 265 entries, involving three start lines. Numbers were up in the Big Boat Series, now in its second year and with a separate class included for 40.7s for the first time. Interest had also grown in the two one design J-Boat classes, J/105 and J/109, in Black Group. The Laser SB3s had the largest class of 72 boats compared with 59 in 2006. With so much going on, the Club was pleased to welcome help from visiting race officers - Abel Bellaguet, International Judge, from Hyeres in France who assisted with White Group and the Protest Committee and Patrik Schander a Swedish National Race Officer assigned to Black Group and the Big Boats. All competitors will be welcome at the prize giving to be held at the Warsash Sailing club on Friday 18th May 2007.

Big Boat Series winners:
First 40.7 - Playing Around, Peter Robson
IRC1 - Wisc, Glynn Williams
IRM - Exabyte, Shaun Frohlich

Black Group winners:
IRC1 - Panthera, Benny Kelly
IRC2 - Vortex, Tim & Sophie Harrington
IRC3 - Astarte, Nick Jones and Suzi Lawicka
IRC4 - Glide-X, Ian Dawson
IRC5 - Sixes and Sevens, DavePullen, MickNorman, StuartWhitmore, PipDwyer
J/105 - J-Dream, David & Kirsty Apthorp
J/109 - Johnny Blue II, Bruce Jubb

Spring Championship:
Hunter 707 - Cacciatore, Richard Barnes
J/80 - Wee Jump, Stewart Hawthorn
SB3 - Champagne Blonde, Daniel Geoghegan
Sports Boats - G&T, David Greenhalgh

White Group:
Hunter 707 - Sword, Simon Law & Chris Eddy
J/80 - Jenga Trois, Marie-Claude & Paul Heys
SB3 - Blue Job, Marshall Kingn
Sports Boats - Go Ferret, Huw Alban Davies

Full results at: warsashsc.org.uk

THE SLEDS ARE BACK
Newport Beach, California, USA: There are about 450 reasons for sailing the 60th Lexus Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race that starts at noon Friday, one for every boat in the race.

A few, like Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, will be sailing seriously for records and others will be going strictly for fun, while others still will be sailing seriously for fun.

Those would include a half-dozen ultralight displacement (ULDB) 70s---the celebrated "sleds" that once ruled the West Coast waves from the mid-80s to mid-90s before migrating to the Great Lakes. Now they're coming back, as evidenced by seven entries in the recent Newport-to-Cabo San Lucas race and six in this event, including a couple of past campaigners: Ed McDowell with Grand Illusion and Brack Duker with Holua.

The West Coast revival is led by McDowell, who has homes in Hawaii and Hermosa Beach, Calif. and never really left the class even as it disappeared around him. Most of the boats wound up with new owners on the Great Lakes, where they enjoyed spirited competition for several seasons.

Then, as the Great Lakes fleet ebbed, from out of the past some sleds came calling on the market.

Besides Grand Illusion and Holua, both Santa Cruz 70s, other sleds entered for Newport-Ensenada are Chris Slagerman's Dencho 68, Cheetah; the Yabsley/Compton/Parker-owned Reichel/Pugh 68, Taxi Dancer; Robert Krause's Dencho 70, Alchemy, and Peter Tong's upgraded SC 70, OEX, a successor to his former Orient Express.

The 70s once dominated Newport-Ensenada, but in their absence speed machines like Roy E. Disney's Pyewackets and Baker's Magnitude 80 took over first-to-finish honors. Now the sleds will be in the hunt for a new trophy donated by Jim Madden, owner of Stark Raving Mad III, an R/P 66, for the best corrected time in the Maxi class.

Baker's aim will be more ambitious. He briefly held the race record of 11 hours 23 minutes 53 seconds set in 2002 until it was bettered by Disney's third Pyewacket a year later in 10:44:54, a record that still stands—and, of course, is subject more to the whims of the wind than all of the technology on earth. The multihull record hasn't been seriously challenged since Steve Fossett clocked 6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds in 1998---the only boat ever to finish before sundown. -- Rich Roberts

www.nosa.org

LAUNCHINGS
* I'd like to tell you all about Alex Thomson's new Open 60 Hugo Boss but if I did I might get zapped by the Death Star. Alex and build project manager Jason Carrington showed me the new boat in build in Lymington on Wednesday on condition I promised to say nothing until the launch in late May.

The new boat is a Groupe Finot design, much lighter and more powerful than the Open 60 Alex sadly lost in the Southern Ocean last year. So far, so well-known. But why the secrecy about absolutely everything else? Now I've seen the new Hugo Boss I can understand why Alex wants to keep it under wraps. There are some things here that will look quite different and the new Hugo Boss is being lovingly built with detail and styling that is really going to turn heads.

Say no more - except that this is going to be the class's Darth Vader.

Elaine Bunting's Blog:
www.yachtingworld.com//yw/blog/20070320172413blog_elaine_bunting.html

* In September 2002, Christophe Guigeno's SeaSailSurf.com was the first media to reveal photographs of the first Figaro Beneteau prototype (see seasailsurf.com/seasailsurf/actu/spip.php?article1425 ). Four and a half years later, SeaSailSurf.com has the first information on changes to the boat for its 2008 edition...

- A "mainsail with a corner" -- greater head area, a sailplan similar to that used by IMOCA 60's and Mini 6.50's

- Retractable bow sprit, a carbon tube which will extend 90 centimeters in front of the hull.

- A Code Zero flown off the sprit.

This new "Super Figaro" will be sailing in regattas in April 2008.

www.seasailsurf.com/seasailsurf/actu/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=4322

* The new Safran Open 60 is taking shape at the Chantier Naval de Larros shipyards. The shipyard project team, headed by Thierry Eluere, and the Safran Sailing Team, are heading into the home stretch, prior to the boat launch expected by the beginning of summer.

The deck, ballast system and keel box have been installed, and the bulkhead for the main sail track has been bonded and must now be stratified.

"The SAFRAN monohull is the culmination of more than 4,600 hours of engineering, research and development, in collaboration with SAFRAN," noted naval architect Guillaume Verdier. Vincent Lauriot-Prevost, a naval architect with the firm VPLP, added, "The SAFRAN boat is dedicated to solo races and the Vendee Globe. We toned down its power to increase performance with a reduced crew, so it won't be the widest, or the highest, or fly the most sail

Skipper Marc Guillemot is chomping at the bit, impatient to take the helm of this new boat. "The SAFRAN monohull features a radical shape. Along with my crew, we tried to come up with a design that would facilitate solo sailing."

While awaiting his first at-sea trials on the SAFRAN Open 60, Marc Guillemot and his crew will be taking part in the National Open 7.50 from May 5 to 8 at La Trinite-sur-Mer. -- www.safransixty.com

Photos of the boat in build at scuttlebutteurope.com/photos/ in the Launchings section

THE LAST WORD
Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. -- Eugene S. Wilson

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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