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ERICSSON RACING TEAM ANNOUNCES SECOND BOAT FOR VOR
Stockholm, Sweden: The Ericsson Racing Team will enter two boats in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. After recruiting skipper John Kostecki, designer Juan Kouyoumdjian and boat builder Killian Bushe last year, the team announces today that a second boat bearing its colours will be raced by a Nordic crew and skippered by Swede Anders Lewander.

The Ericsson Racing Team has decided to build two boats in its bid to conquer the Volvo Ocean Race in 2008 - 09. Alongside Kostecki's international crew, the second boat will be raced by an all Nordic team with a Swedish skipper. Anders Lewander, who will lead this team, is a newcomer in the Volvo Ocean Race and his profile is different from the usual offshore professional sailor.

Anders Lewander has a strong background in dinghies sailing, having been a member of the Swedish National Sailing Team. Amongst different and very varied sailing experiences - ranging from 49ers to Archipelago Raid - he has also sailed around the world on board Cheyenne/Playstation in the Oryx Cup 2005. He has been working for North Sails Sweden since 1994, and is a very experienced sail maker.

Lewander's crew will benefit from five time Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Race veteran Magnus Olsson's experience. Technical Director for the Ericsson Racing Team in 2005-06, "Mange", has been appointed by Lewander as coach and advisor to the Nordic crew.

The two crews will be part of one same team and the two boats will compete on an equal basis. Both of them will be built by Killian Bushe next to Ericsson's headquarters in Kista (Stockholm).

www.volvooceanrace.org

MATCH RACE GERMANY
Friday's racing saw a surprising early departure for the current World Tour leader and World Ranked #1 Ian Williams. "It was not the conditions that dictated us leaving so early in the game we were simply not on our usual winning form" said Williams. Williams is always very strong in the starting box but with the conditions being so light, this was less of an advantage. Joining Ian Williams in elimination were Bjorn Hansen, Carsten Kemmling and Wearn Haw Tan of China Team.

Eight crews (the top four from Group A1 & A2) qualified for the quarterfinals. The Quarterfinal Round, a seven-flight round robin, featured crews led by skippers Mathieu Richard, Sébastien Col, Evgeniy Neugodnikov and Eric Monnin from Group A1. Markus Wieser, Paolo Cian, Staffan Lindberg and Michael Hestbaek qualified from Group A2.

On Sunday, racing conditions of 10-12 knots presented itself to the eight teams competing in the quarterfinals at Match Race Germany, Stage 7 of the 2006-'07 World Match Racing Tour.

While the names at the top of the leader board are familiar, it was the 25-year-old Russian who stole the show and kept over 25,000 visitors on the shore side watching in anticipation as he cleaned up and won five races out of seven. Eugeniy Neugodnikov, Russia's rising match-racer, made a splash when he won his first match against America's Cup skipper Paolo Cian of Team Shosholoza.

Neugodnikov, looked like an experienced hand in his first race as it was a forgone conclusion when he crossed the finish line with Cian questioning whether he was actually in the race. He then went on to win a further four races and secured his spot in the semi final along with Mathieu Richard, Paolo Cian and Staffan Lindberg.

Unfortunately Neugodnikov was unable to maintain his winning form in the first two races against Cian in the semis.

It was a similar story for Mathieu Richard and Staffan Lindberg with Richard securing two wins. "

A disappointing day for Germany's Markus Wieser who only managed to secure two wins and place 7th overall. "We are very disappointed, we had some tactical errors in our starts and we were simply not fast enough. This is what happens when you do not compete on the tour regularly, you simply lack consistency which has been demonstrated by myself" said Wieser. Col, Hestbaek, and Monnin all joined Wieser in the bottom half of the leader board.

Racing is scheduled to resume at 9.00am Monday morning.

www.matchrace.de

ELEVEN CREWS AROUND THE ISLANDS
The third edition of the Calais Round Britain Race will set off on 3rd June for a 1,850 mile sprint across the English Channel, the Irish Sea, the Atlantic, the North Sea and finally into Pas de Calais. Eleven 60 foot monohulls will take the start, including four new prototypes.

The battle between four new Open monohulls and a perfectly honed armada with a proven track record is eargerly awaited. Jeremie Beyou (Delta Dore) and Vincent Riou (PRB) will finally be able to fully appreciate the potential of their new Farr designs, which weren't able to show their true colours in the last Route du Rhum. Dominique Wavre (Temenos), fifth in the single-handed transat has had the winter to take his Owen Clarke design in hand. Meantime, Yann Eliès (Generali) will be racing his new Group Finot design from an architectural firm, which hasn't produced a 60' Imoca for some time, despite winning the last four Vendee Globes.

Doing battle against these new designs, Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux) is a figure of reference, especially as his team have given the Lombard design a thorough overhaul to further optimise the boat following on from the Vendee Globe and the Route du Rhum. With a wealth of experience from his dazzling win in the Velux 5 Oceans, Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat) is jumping ship to take charge of the ex-Virbac Paprec formerly owned by Jean-Pierre Dick, the very first Farr design from 2003. Alongside them Dee Caffari (Aviva), Samantha Davies (Roxy), Arnaud Boissière (Akena Verandas) and Alexandre Toulorge (Maisonneuve) will all be first-time skippers on the Imoca circuit, whilst this will be the second Calais Round Britain Race for Jonny Malbon, now skipper of Artemis.

The Race organisers (CCI Calais/ Royale) will be expecting all the boats in port by Tuesday 29th May.

www.calaisroundbritainrace.com

BEST OF LOUIS VUITTON ACTS 1-12
America's Cup Internet TV available on www.americascupanywhere.com is proving to be a big hit with Cup fans around the world.

For fans eager to check out all the action on the last three years of racing the new official event DVD, The Best of Louis Vuitton Acts 1-12, is indispensable.

Clocking in at 180 minutes, this production retraces all the great moments throughout the Louis Vuitton Acts between 2004-06 with many added feature segments taken from the ACTV show, America's Cup Stories.

www.americascupstore.com/cart/add_to_cart.asp?id=LVCDVD.1

BELL LAWRIE SCOTTISH SERIES
Tarbert, Loch Fyne: Two Irish boats remain the prime contenders to lift the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series Trophy after just one race on Loch Fyne today for the IRC Classes.

Sunday mornings can be slow on the picturesque sea loch, but the two - and sometimes it seemed like three - conflicting breezes could not sort themselves out for long enough for a course to be set. Only when the fleet motored north into the northerly breeze, nearly two and a half hours later did a short, one hour race get under way.

Light and shifty, IRC Class 1 jumped the gun en masse and after their general recall, were sent to the back of the sequence.

Jump Juice, Conor Phelan's Ker 37, conspired to win their fourth race from five starts, to lead the Class by four points from Colin Buffin's Swan 42 Uxorious. After an eleventh in the first race Uxorious has continually sailed their own race at the front of the fleet and has now scored four second places. Geoff Howison's Local Hero, the BH41 lies third after finishing equal second with Uxorious this afternoon.

Blondie III's string of wins came to an unfortunate end today. They failed to recognise the shortened course signals on the committee boat as pertaining to their class. Their normal set up for a mark rounding, rather than heading to finish by the committee boat proved a costly error. They lost out to their Dublin rivals on Rosie, also a Corby design, by a slender 10 seconds, but their margin over second placed Rosie now extends to nine points.

In IRC Class 3 it is the vintage J35 Bengal Magic which is keeping the younger J92S's at bay with relative ease. The Northern Irish boat leads by two points from Andy Budgen's The Project which finished third this afternoon, while the 92S of Hamish Mackay - twice winner of the overall Scottish Series Trophy - lies third, ahead of niJinsky, another 92S. With no one design class this year, the Impalas are making their presence felt in Class 4. Clyde sailmaker Murray Caldwell increased the lead of his crew on Hooch this afternoon when the won for the second time, ahead of Peter Doig's East Antrim based Impala Bambi. -- Andi Robertson

Full results at www.clyde.org/www2/ss7_home.shtml

GLORY FOR BASILICA AT THE ISHARES CUP MUNICH
Great Britain's Robert Greenhalgh helmed his Extreme 40 Basilica, crewed by Peter Greenhalgh, Justin Slattery and James Grant, to victory on Lake Starnberg in the first event of the iShares Cup Extreme 40 season. It went to the wire with the final race proving the decider. Greenhalgh kept his cool even after scoring a last place in the penultimate race and kept Jean-Christophe Mourniac's Volvo Ocean Race Extreme 40 at bay.

While the Brits topped the scoreboard of the three-day competition that saw the maximum number of 15 races sailed and 25,000 spectators viewing the action, Volvo Ocean Race were always close behind, keeping the pressure on. The French team were only five points adrift of the overall lead, only falling below 4th place once over the course of three days.

The race committee rescheduled racing to attempt to fit in nine races to reach the maximum 15 races allowed for each iShares Cup event. The six-boat fleet started at 0900 local time in a moderate breeze although the wind varied in speed and direction throughout the day from 2 knots to the occasional hull-flying 8 knots.

In fifth place, Offshore Challenges Sailing Team skippered by Nick Moloney, had native sailor and Olympic Tornado Class sailor Gunnar Struckmann on board. Moloney and his crew, including Britain's Olympic Tornado sailor Hugh Styles, struggled to find their form but were elated to post a win in the second race of today.

Team 'SLAM' Denmark may have finished the event in sixth place, but as a fully amateur team they have made their mark on this fleet of professional sailors.

The next iShares Cup Extreme 40 event will be held in Marseille from 7-9 July but before then some of the fleet will head to Lake Geneva to compete in one of Europe's largest endurance races, the 82-mile Bol d'Or Mirabaud.

www.ocevents.org

"AN EXCELLENT BIT OF KIT..." - SAILING WORLD MAGAZINE
Ocean Racing's waterproof Offshore Backpack will keep your laptop dry, even when everything else gets wet! Features include polyurethane-impregnated fabric with seams that are sewn, taped & RF welded. The removable neoprene computer sleeve cushions large screen laptops and the main compartment has plenty of room for weather gear and boots. Padded shoulder straps comfortably distribute weight and along with the matching Offshore Duffel, make the driest & best looking sailing luggage anywhere. Take advantage of the weak U.S. dollar now!

www.OceanRacing.com

MORE SURPRISES IN STORE?
Since the first "unveiling day", when teams had to reveal their outboard secrets to the press, the public and their rivals, there has been little evidence of fundamental change in the basic design of the America's Cup boat. Events on the water, which have been compelling and unpredictable - Team China recorded their only victory of the round-robin series over BMW Oracle, for goodness sake - in equal measure, have proved that the margins on the drawing board have narrowed. The superb exhibition of seamanship by Luna Rossa over the past 10 days confirmed the shift in thinking. "It's down to good old-fashioned sailing," says Eddie Warden Owen, the British coach of the Desafio team. "Lost races aren't attributable to poor boat speed or lack of sailing ability. It's not a technological race any more. It's down to who dominates at the start and who reads the wind the best."

On the evidence of the semi-finals, both of those elements will favour Luna Rossa. James Spithill, the young Australian at the helm of the former Prada team, so comprehensively outmanoeuvred and outpsyched Chris Dickson, his opposite number on BMW Oracle, that the New Zealander, one of the most experienced match-racers in the world, was removed from the boat for the final race. Depending on whom you believe, he resigned or was dismissed by owner Larry Ellison a few days after the defeat.

Nobody was more surprised by the collapse than Warden Owen. "The ease of the Italians' victory surprised me, for sure, as did the ease with which James Spithill dominated Dickson," he says. "Whenever I've watched videos of the start, I've always watched Chris. He was the model of consistency and relaxation. But he completely lost the feeling for it and all sense of relaxation. Spithill never gave him room to breathe throughout the semi-final and the way he drew him into two penalties in that crucial race, that was a fantastic job. If Spithill can do the same to Dean Barker in the final, it could be the deciding factor." -- Andrew Longmore in The Times, full article at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/sailing/article1845448.ece

BRITISH PORTS LINE UP FOR AMERICA'S CUP
This week, three members of the team Origin are looking at prospective bases for a British America's Cup.

As the battle continued in the Mediterranean off Valencia, they were touring unglamorous British ports (Torquay, Folkestone, Weymouth, Felixstowe...), imagining them remade into billion-pound centres of international sailing.

Sir Keith Mills, the millionaire entrepreneur who has announced that he is launching a challenge for the next America's Cup, was last Week in Valencia again, showing prospective business partners for his team around the three new marinas, one of which has been built specifically for super-yachts, and the gleaming hotels and apartments that now surround the harbour.

"It was an old fishing port," remembered Mills. "Some years ago, the city put a huge container port in front of it. The fishing harbour was run down, with drug dealers and prostitutes. It was not a safe place to go."

When asked about a possible America's Cup in Liverpool, Sir Keith Mills said all the options are on the table.

"One of our concerns is how long it takes from the harbour out to the race area", he said. "I wouldn't discount anywhere. Although the south coast is more likely."

And, of course, he will have to win the America's Cup first...

CupinEurope.com, citing the Times:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/sailing/article1832199.ece

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

GIPSY MOTH IV COMPLETES GLOBAL VOYAGE
Monday 28th May 2007 sees the return of Gipsy Moth IV to Plymouth after completing her second global voyage, this time sailed by young people. She returns to the city exactly 40 years to the day since Chichester sailed into Plymouth Sound after completing his record breaking circumnavigation in 1967.

The Gipsy Moth IV Project has provided nearly 90 deserving young people with the opportunity of a lifetime - of challenge, adventure and achievement. The famous vessel has visited 20 countries around the world and generated a following of thousands via the project's website and educational resource packages distributed to UK schools.

On Monday, UKSA team of Richard Baggett and skipper John Jeffrey and their young crew, Kerry Prideaux who was nominated for the voyage by the Sir Francis Chichester Trust, Grant McCabe from Plymouth and Glen Austin from the Isle of Wight, will sail into Plymouth marking the completion of Gipsy Moth IV's second global voyage. Giles Chichester, son of Sir Francis Chichester will welcome the yacht home along with the Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth. The city has organised a fantastic welcome, with live music, archive footage, aeroplane displays and street entertainment.

The crew has had a difficult passage from Gibraltar, with storm force winds and raging seas.

The original idea to restore Gipsy Moth IV and sail her around the world came from the project's founder, Yachting Monthly editor Paul Gelder who approached the United Kingdom Sailing Academy (UKSA) in Cowes with his plans. UKSA saw a huge opportunity not only to save a key part of Britain's sailing history but to create a project to combine the yacht's history with a new generation and inspire young people to engage in maritime activities, helping to revive and grow Britain's great maritime heritage.

Following the global voyage, Gipsy Moth IV will join UKSA's fleet of yachts in Cowes and continue to take young people on adventurous sailing experiences. UKSA will still be actively fundraising to cover the cost of these sailing trips and the yacht's ongoing maintenance costs. One way in which funds will be raised is by opening the yacht up to the public, UKSA will be selling Gipsy Moth day, weekend and 5-day trips around the south coast with proceeds being put towards the charitable works.

For more information about the voyage, the yacht's future and the sailing opportunities, visit www.gipsymoth.org

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 David Pelly, Editor, 'Refit': All the inummerable people who love the Cutty Sark should not lose heart after last week's heartbreaking fire. There is no ship, however far gone, that cannot be restored if the will and the money is there. A couple of years ago I had the great pleasure of sailing on Mikael Krafft's lovely old 39m schooner Doriana that had been completely burned out when she had nearly completed a lengthy restoration. Her condition looked hopeless, especially as she was all-timber rather than composite like Cutty Sark but Krafft took good advice and decided she should be saved. In a second complete restoration it proved possible to use about 70 percent of the original teak-on-oak hull construction while the deck and deckhouses were renewed. A key point to remember about fire is that it burns mainly upwards so that decks and upper topsides are vulnerable but not the bottom of a vessel. For instance Doriana's shiny new engine was undamaged and only needed cleaning up while the deck, the top portion of the frames and the topside planking was destroyed.

Looking at Kos' pictures, it does not seem as if the iron framing of Cutty Sark is too bad. In recent years we have seen old steel vessels brought back from way beyond the grave by a process of piece-by-piece repair or replacement. The 1905 steel schooner Invader was little more than a pile of rust, loosely held together by paint, and is now better than new following a total rebuild in Italy. If Cutty Sark's iron frames are twisted, they can be removed individually, repaired and replaced so she does not lose structural integrity. Most of the planking was off anyway, together with the whole of the rig and the deckhouses. It will take time and money to bring her back but it certainly can and should be done.

THE LAST WORD
We are the people our parents warned us about. -- Jimmy Buffett

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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