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HIGH WIND CANCELS RACING IN VALENCIA
Strong Northeasterly winds on the waters off Valencia forced the Race Committee to postpone racing for the day on Tuesday.

The wind was been between 20 and 25 knots all day, and the Race Committee considered the sea state off Port America's Cup (with waves up to two metres) such that it could cause damage to the racing yachts.

Racing is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, when Emirates Team New Zealand will try to finish off its Semi Final series against Desafio Espanol 2007. The score is currently 4-2 in favour of the Kiwis, who need one more win to advance.

Desafio Espanol must win the next three races if the Spanish are to upset the top challenger and advance to the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The forecast for Wednesday is for more moderate Northeasterly winds, although sea state could remain an issue.

Luna Rossa Challenge is waiting to meet the winner. The Italian challenger won its Semi Final series over BMW ORACLE Racing 5-1, earning its fifth and final win on Sunday afternoon.

The Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup will begin on 1 June.

www.americascup.com

* No racing today, so the Spanish team will have more time to think about it.

And you know they've thought about it.

Beating New Zealand.

It's not in the script. It can't happen. They're down 2 races to four in a first-to-five and the goal was merely to make the semifinals. Going into Race 7 (eventually) they're already off-script and over-achieving. But they couldn't have come this far unless they could dream about it, eh? Karol Jablonski on the helm, John Cutler on tactics, Luis Doreste as strategist and the core of what is, looking around the deck, a pretty-genuinely Spanish team. Jablonski keeps saying, there's no pressure on us to win; it's all on the Kiwis to not lose.

Me, I'm just here for a story.

On any given day, the odds favor the Kiwis, and anything can happen. -- Kimball Livingston, sailmagazine.blogspot.com

* One of the great delights in this regatta has been the 'Cutlerisms', as fans are treated to an on-board commentary from Desafio Espanol strategist and Technical Director John Cutler.

Cutler was an Olympic Bronze medallist for New Zealand in the Finn class in the Pusan Olympics, but is now part of the host country team in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Sadly, in spite of numerous request from organisers, he seems to be the only one to be miked up and providing a great insight into how these boats are run and how easily a race can be turned by a positive approach, and some self-belief.

The matter has been all the way to the America's Cup Jury, who ruled that while there was a rule that required microphones to be on board, the TV producers could not stipulate who was to wear these. John Cutler, aboard Desafio Espanol is providing a great solo act. From the other teams, all that seems to be coming back are the muffled comments from the microphone mounted on the media tower at the aft end of the boat. -- Richard Gladwell in Sail-World NZL, www.sail-world.com

BE IN THE FRONT ROW OF THE SPECTATOR FLEET IN VALENCIA!
Our Shosholoza team spectator boat still operates - every race day until the end of the America's Cup Match. Morning briefing on our rooftop terrace overlooking Alinghi and Luna Rossa. Official "event flag" puts us in the reserved area closest to the start box and laylines. Live AC TV on board. Full buffet lunch with drinks. Expert commentators. All the fun you would expect from "The Soul of Sailing". Many hotels available, we can help. GROUPS WELCOME.

Reserve tickets online at www.cupexperience.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

PUMA PICKS ITS BUILDER AND DESIGNERS
PUMA has announced that the world-renowned design team, Botin Carkeek, and acclaimed custom yacht builder, Goetz Custom Boats, have been commissioned to begin work on PUMA's new Volvo Open 70, which will compete in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09.

Botin Carkeek of Santander, Spain, has been named as the principal design team for PUMA Racing. Marcelino Botin and Shaun Carkeek are internationally known for designing some of the world's fastest racing yachts.

Botin is the lead designer for Team New Zealand currently sailing in the semi-finals of the America's Cup Challenge Series. The designers have had resounding success in the highly competitive IMS and TP 52 classes.

Goetz Custom Boats of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, has an outstanding reputation for building boats for offshore endurance races. Its boats have won the America's Cup, Admiral's Cup and Maxi Worlds and have also competed successfully in three Volvo Ocean Races.

PUMA Racing Team's new Volvo Open 70, which will compete in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09, will be ready to set sail in early 2008. Currently, the PUMA Racing Team is training locally in New England with their home base in Newport, Rhode Island.

www.volvooceanrace.org

LIFE AT THE EXTREME
Life At The Extreme, the official book of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06, chronicles over eight months of relentless competition in the world's most menacing of oceans.

Author and broadcaster Rob Mundle together with the world's best sailing photographers have captured every angle of the world's top offshore sailors doing battle over 31,500 nautical miles. The highs, the lows, the hardships in the quest for the overall prize - the Fighting Finish Trophy.

With over 150 pages of words and pictures, Life At The Extreme is available to buy online at www.volvooceanrace.org/booksanddvds or from leading high street book stores.

COUNTDOWN FOR THE OPENING ISHARES CUP EVENT
The iShares Cup 2007 is coming to Lake Starnberg, near Munich this weekend 25-27 May. With only days to go before the opening event in the series kicks off the venue is a hub of activity.

The Extreme 40 fleet will hit the water for three days of racing and exhibition asiling, aiming to wow crowds while competing for the iShares Cup trophy. These 40-foot catamarans will be sailed by some professional sailors from the world of America's Cup, Olympic, Offshore and solo disciplines.

Teams have begun to arrive and are beginning to upack thier containers, unload their boats and assemble their rigs while the race village is in mid-construction.

* Offshore Challenges Sailing Team has announced it will field a highly competitive entry in the upcoming iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series, becoming the sixth boat to offiically enter this action packed sailing event. The first event is now just a few days away, and will start on Lake Starnberg, near Munich on Friday, 25th May.

America's Cup and around the world sailor Nick Moloney will skipper the team throughout the series which will take the fleet to some of Europe's top destinations including Munich, Marseille, Geneva, Lake Garda, Amsterdam and Cowes.

Joining Moloney in Munich on the 40-foot performance catamaran will be former British Olympic Tornado sailor Hugh Styles and America's Cup crewman David Carr. German Olympian Gunnar Struckman will be the fourth member of this team for the Lake Starnberg event. -- from BYM news, www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=8895

iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series 2007
iShares Cup, Munich, 25-27 May
iShares Cup, Marseille, 7-9 July
iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week, 3-5 Aug
iShares Cup, Amsterdam, 14-16 Sept

iShares Cup Endurance Races 2007
Bol d'Or Mirabaud, Geneva 15-16 June
JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, Cowes 22-23 June
CentoMiglia, Lake Garda 7-8 Sept

www.iSharesCup.com

MATCH CUP SWEDEN RETURNS TO THE TOUR
Following the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup the top skippers are already preparing for the next Cup as the World Match Racing Tour will continue top level match racing action for the ISAF World Match Racing Championship. Team Pindar's Ian Williams continues to lead the World Tour with 62 points followed closely behind by Mathieu Richard (50) and United Internet Team Germany's Jesper Bank (45). These three are followed closely by Shosaloza's Paolo Cian (41), Alinghi's Ed Baird (40) and Peter Holmberg (37) with the 2006 World Champion Peter Gilmour in 7th on 35 points. However, there are 1,100 points still to be won at the next 10 events and the points will double for the final event, the Monsoon Cup, Malaysia in December. In addition, all of the World Tour events are Graded WC on the ISAF World Match Race Rankings as the highest level events in the world.

\Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand has rejoined the World Tour under new management by former WMRT President, Pierre Tinnerholm of Brandspot in association with the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club (GKSS). This event will see the return to the beautiful island of Marstrand just North of Gothenburg. The event boasts 100,000 Euros in prize money and has seen over 30,000 spectators per day lining the shores to follow the racing.

2007 World Match Racing Tour Schedule

May 23-28 - Match Race Germany - Langenargen, Germany
Jul 2-8 - Match Cup Sweden - Marstrand, Sweden
Jul 24-29 - Portugal Match Cup - Troia, Portugal
Aug 8-12 - Danish Open - Skovshoved, Denmark
Aug 14-19 - St. Moritz Match Race - St. Moritz, Switzerland
Sep 11-16 - Latium Match Cup - Rome, Italy
Sep 18-23 - Toscana Elba Cup - Porto Azzurro, Elba Isl. Italy
Oct 9-14 - Bermuda Gold Cup - Hamilton, Bermuda
Oct 23-28 - Brazil Sailing Cup - Vitoria, Brazil
Nov 28-Dec 2 - Monsoon Cup - Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

ISAF World Match Racing Championship Standings (Top 8)
(After Stage 6 of 16)
1. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar, 62 points
2. Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team, 50 points
3. Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 45 points
4. Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Viano, 41 points
5. Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi, 40 points
6. Peter Holmberg (USVI) Alinghi, 37 points
7. Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST, 35 points
8. Sebastian Col (FRA) Areva Challenge, 33 points

worldmatchracingtour.com

WARM IRISH WELCOME PREPARED FOR HUGE EUROPEAN LASER SAILING FIELD
The European Laser 4.7 championships- scheduled for the 21- 27 July in Dublin Bay promises to be the biggest youth sailing event ever on Dublin Bay with over 200 entries from 23 countries already posted.

The opening ceremony will be attended by Goran Pettersson, Head of the ISAF. The flag raising ceremony will take place at 6pm on Saturday July 21st at the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Plaza.

We expect the final entry to be around 250 boats and everything involving that number requires a lot of planning. Despite the fact that entries do not close until 8th June, just under 200 sailors have already signed up from 22 countries, including Poland, Russia, Andorra, Austria, Belgium and Czech Republic.

The event is heavily supported by Dublin business community - most notably by Laser Card, the new Royal Marine Hotel, Ballygowan and Renewco Energy.

www.nyc.ie

32ND AMERICA'S CUP TEAM GEAR
For the most comprehensive range of official gear from the teams competing in the 32nd America's Cup, be sure to check out the official webstore.

We have apparel, accessories and much, much more from all the teams, so if you can't make it to Valencia to check out the event superstore, this is the next best place to get the gear you need.

www.americascupstore.com

AZAB 2007 BECKONS
Allen Clarke of Owen Clarke Yacht Design sailing in this year's AZAB

On 2nd June over fifty yachts will cross the sart line in Falmouth UK for the 9th edition of the AZAB (Azores and Back), one of the classic British offshore short handed races. This event run by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club covers just less than 2500 miles of open ocean, approximately 1220 miles on each leg. The majority of yachts usually take between 7 and 10 days to reach the Azores allowing a week or so to relax and restock before the return leg.

As with any major yacht race the hardest battle is getting the boat and crew prepared at the start line, for 'Sage' this was a matter of making some difficult choices on new equipment and taking the boat out of summer regatta racing mode and configuring her for more shorthanded orientated racing. The 500 nm qualifying passage carried out last summer enabled us to take a closer look at power management and evaluate our sail wardrobe along with working out which foods we wanted to eat. Out went the rather outdated sailing instruments and the fitting of a new wireless TackTick system. Simon Unwin of Dart Sails and Covers Ltd furnished us with a new spinnaker and storm jib, Simon is also a fellow competitor on one of the smallest entries with another Dartmouth based boat Robert Bishop's 'Wild Blossom'. Barry Hollis of Rigging Solutions has continued his support with updating Sages rig and also supplying a Monitor wind vane self steering package, so should the electric autopilot fail we do have a tried and tested manual backup. Gara Hampton previously a key preparateur for the Challenge Business's global ocean races has brought his experience into managing our power consumption and dealing with a lot of the small engineering details that accompanied the refit of the onboard sytems.

It has always been a key element for all the staff at OCD to sail inshore and offshore sharpening the skills and keeping a sense of reality back in the office when evaluating new ideas. As well as skippering the 96/97 BT Global Challenge yacht 'Global Teamwork' Merfyn Owen competed in the French classic Transat Jaques Vabres in 2005 aboard 'Artforms' an Owen Clarke Design open 50'. This is Allens second AZAB, his first having been with Rupert Kidd on the Owen Clarke 35' trimaran 'Fiery Cross' back in 1995 and will be racing two handed with Ronald Gould on 'Sage' Ron's 1979 Sparkman and Stephens 38'. 'Sage' was built from the wooden tooling for a short lived production line of cruiser racers. It may not be quite an Open 60 or even a Class 40 but nonetheless the competitive spirit remains the same. In this largely Corinthian entry race the yachts entered range from the smallest entry of Phil Pilates veteran Half Tonner 'General Tapioca' to the largest the 48' sloop 'Nathaniel Bowditch' in amongst these are a smattering of J boats, Open 40's Class 40's and racing and cruising yachts from the seventies eighties and nineties. Truly a diverse fleet we doubt anybody could predict the outcome.

www.owenclarkedesign.com/da/55276

OPEN 60 NEWS
* En-route back to France onboard his newly built Open 60 Paprec-Virbac, Jean-Pierre arrived in Panama on Sunday to sail from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Jean-Pierre Dick: "We sailed safely to Panama, and we are now moored in front of the Balboa Yacht Club, just before 'Las Americas' bridge, one of the bridges that crosses the Panama Canal. Unfortunately we experienced very light winds so this first part of our journey from New Zealand was very slow : 6500 miles sailing at an average speed of 9.7 knots! Damian Foxall, my co-skipper for the Barcelona World Race, will arrive tonight and tomorrow we will start sorting out the customs paperwork to cross the canal. We hope to set off in the next week." -- www.jpdick.com

* Artemis Ocean Racing skipper, Jonny Malbon, and his co-skipper Graham Tourell arrived back at Ocean Village in Southampton (UK) in the early hours of Saturday morning after completing their first double-handed transatlantic voyage together. The crossing took just 13 days and 7 hours and the young pair covered 4,372 miles at an average speed of 14 knots. The voyage serves as the British duo's official qualifier for the Transat Jacques Vabre race starting from Le Havre, France, in November. -- www.artemisoceanracing.com

* Alex Thomson's new IMOCA Open 60 HUGO BOSS is progressing nicely in Lymington led by the highly experienced Jason Carrington, built by Lymington (UK) based boat builder Neville Hutton. There have been some delays with both the mast (being made in New Zealand) and the keel (being made in France) which means that she will not now hit the water until late June. Harry McGougan, Operations Director: "We have a great team around us and the boat is looking good. We are so proud of the design and finishing of the new boat that we can't wait to launch it, hopefully in mid July." -- www.alexthomsonracing.com

Subscribe to the OC Events Open 60 news RSS feed at www.ocevents.org/open60news/

THE LAST WORD
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education. -- Bertrand Russell

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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