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AMERICA'S CUP: LOUIS VUITTON OUT...
French luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton is ending its sponsorship of the America's Cup, citing concerns that the sailing event has become too commercial.

"The new America's Cup rules define a more commercial approach, and the signed protocol has already been questioned by some of those concerned. Indeed, there is a risk of a significant reduction in the number of participating teams," the company said in a statement Friday.

"In these conditions, Louis Vuitton has decided not to lend its name to the next Challenger selection series," it added.

America's Cup Management chief operating officer Michel Hodara called these claims an "exaggeration."

"It's unfortunate that Louis Vuitton could not appreciate the success won over from the 32nd America's Cup and its great gains in the public," Hodra told The Associated Press by telephone from Valencia.

"Now, we will simply have to find a partner that shares the same values of the Cup and this sport. It changes nothing in terms of organizing the 33rd America's Cup."

Though Louis Vuitton held out the possibility that it could return to the cup "in another form," Hodra was disappointed that the longtime sponsors could not appreciate the last edition.

"Their sentiments belong to them. All I can say is that we've received visits from international organizations who have all admired the quality of the venue and the organization of this event," Hodra said. "And we want to continue to grow this sport so that it does not fall just under a roof that is limited to sailing."

Hodra said that AC Management would not ask Emirates Team New Zealand - winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup - to hand the trophy back.

"It can remain there's for all of eternity," he said.

International Herald Tribune:
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/13/sports/EU-SPT-SAI-Louis-Vuitton-Americas-Cup.php

THAT'S NOT A CHALLENGE. THIS IS A CHALLENGE
I don't know if the Spanish challenge is illegal or not - I'll leave that argument to the laywers - but it was certainly spineless. By accepting the one-sided Protocol laid down by Alinghi last week, Desafio Espanol has effectively admitted that it has no real desire to win the 33rd America's Cup. It is merely happy to be a participant, whilst handing Alinghi the tools for a 5-0 whitewash.

The Spanish team is to be applauded for having reached the Semi Finals of the recent Louis Vuitton Cup, but it appears that is the limit of its competitive instincts. In its desire to keep the Cup in Valencia it seems Desafio Espanol was prepared to sign almost anything that Alinghi demanded. The Spanish have sold the challengers down the river.

Here's the fun part.

The dates: "We name 4 July 2008 as the date of the first race, 6 July 2008 and 8 July 2008 as the dates for the second and, if necessary, third races."

And here are the vital statistics for the boat:

Rig: single-masted, sloop-rigged

Dimensions:
Length on Load Waterline - 90 feet
Beam at Load Waterline - 90 feet
Extreme Beam - 90 feet
Draught of water (hull draft) - 3 feet
Draught of water (boards down) - 20 feet

So, a 90-foot catamaran perhaps, or a 90-foot trimaran, or what about a 90-foot skiff with trapeze wings spanning 90-feet from side to side? To be held somewhere in the northern hemisphere in just less than a year.

Plainly the proposal is ludicrous, but in so doing the GGYC has highlighted just how ludicrous some elements of the original Protocol document are. Take, for example, the fact that the Defender has granted itself the right to compete in every stage of the Challenger series, with the exception of the finals. Oh right, OK, so with the one-boat rule that is being mooted, that would mean the challengers' boats are committed to three months of hard racing, with no opportunity for testing or development. Meanwhile the Defender is free to compete for a few races, assess relative speed against the challengers, then withdraw for a spot of chainsaw surgery and then enter a later stage of the Challenger series a couple of weeks further down the line. Rinse and repeat until boat is faster. How very convenient.

The Club Nautico Espanol de Vela was quick to issue a rebuttal to the GGYC's shot across their bow, protesting the validity of the original challenge, and assuring everyone that the Protocol guarantees a fair fight for one and all. With thanks to James Boyd's translation of the original Spanish text on The Daily Sail: "We want to emphasise that the spirit which has presided over the negotiations with the Defender on the part of the CNEV has been one to create a transparent competition that is right and equitable for all the participants and for which joint instruments of management have been created which we hope contribute to a greater agility and effectiveness in the development of the next event."

Phew, that's a relief. Back to your beds and rest easy. The Spanish have got it under control. "Thanks for your concern, GGYC, but we'll take it from here." -- Andy Rice in his must-bookmark blog SailJuice: www.sailjuice.blogspot.com

ISAF SAILING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes (GBR) won gold in the 49er in the first of Friday's three Medal Races at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais. In the Women's 470 Medal Race, Marcelien De Koning and Lobke Berkhout (NED) won their third consecutive World Championship title, whilst Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page (AUS) cruised to victory in the Men's 470.

It was another bright and sunny day in Cascais, Portugal for the final day of racing at the ISAF Sailing World Championships. The forecast was for lighter winds than earlier in the week and that certainly proved to be the case with the 49ers starting just after 15:00 in a 6-8 knot northwesterly. As well as Medal Races in the 49er and 470s, it was also the last chance for the 76 nations in Cascais to gain one of the Olympic qualification places for Beijing.

A second gold and a fourth bronze medal on the final day means Great Britain retain the President of the IOC Cup, finishing top of the medal table in Cascais. -- ISAF, sailing.org

Pos - Nation - Gold - Silver - Bronze - Total
1. Great Britain, 2 - 4 - 6
2. Australia, 2 - 2 - 4
3= Brazil 2 - - 2
3= Spain 2 - - 2
5. Netherlands - 1 - 2 - 1 - 4
6. Poland - 1 - 1 - 2
7. Belarus - 1 - - 1
8= New Zealand - 2 - 2
8= France - 2 - 2
10= Belgium - 1 - 1
10= Finland - 1 - 1
10= USA - 1 - 1
10= Austria - 1 - 1
14= Estonia - - 1 - 1
14= Germany - - 1 - 1
14= Slovenia - - 1 - 1
14= Israel - - 1 - 1

Final medal positions:

470 Men
1. Nathan Wilmot / Malcolm Page, AUS, 30 points
2. Sven Coster / Kalle Coster, NED, 54
3. Gideon Kliger / Udi Gal, ISR, 62

470 Women
1. Marcelien De Koning / Lobke Berkhout, NED, 19
2. Ingrid Petitjean / Nadege Douroux, FRA, 38
3. Christina Bassadone / Saskia Clark, GBR, 42

49er
1. Stevie Morrison / Ben Rhodes, GBR, 35
2. Nico Luca Ma Delle / Leopold Karth, AUT, 52
3. Nathan Outteridge / Ben Austin, AUS, 59

Finn
1. Rafael Trujillo, ESP, 22
2. Pieter Jan Postma, NED, 25
3. Gasper Vincec, SLO, 30

Laser
1. Tom Slingsby, AUS, 43
2. Andrew Murdoch, NZL, 52
3. Deniss Karpak, EST, 55

Laser Radial
1. Tatiana Drozdovskaya, BLR, 47
2. Sari Multala, FIN, 50
3. Petra Niemann, GER, 51

RS:X Men
1. Ricardo Santos, BRA, 30
2. Przemyslaw Miarczynski, POL, 32
3. Nick Dempsey, GBR, 36

RS:X Women
1. Zofia Klepacka, POL, 21
2. Barbara Kendall, NZL, 46
3. Jessica Crisp, AUS, 47

Star
1. Robert Scheidt / Bruno Prada, BRA, 15
2. Xavier Rohart / Pascal Rambeau, FRA, 19
3. Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson, GBR, 25

Tornado
1. Fernando Echavarri / Anton Paz, ESP, 34
2. Carolijn Brouwer / Sebastien Godefroid, BEL, 40
3. Mitch Booth / Pim Nieuwenhuis, NED, 41

Yngling
1. Sarah Ayton / Sarah Webb / Pippa Wilson, GBR, 41
2. Sally Barkow / Carrie Howe / Debbie Capozzi, USA, 42
3. Shirley Robertson / Annie Lush / Lucy MacGregor, GBR, 48

There are replays of the online tracking of the Medal Races at www.isafworldstracking.com

Event site: www.cascaisworlds2007.com

EVER SET EYES ON YOUR STORM TRYSAIL?
Learn to use storm sails without the cutting spray or howling wind of a full gale. UK-Halsey has just posted a 12-minute video on using storm sails, narrated Storm Trysail Club's Past Commodore Richard du Moulin. It's the latest in our series of online safety at sea videos. Viewing is free (after logging on). Watch it, practice in normal conditions, mark all the settings and then go offshore with less to worry about. Previous videos cover the Quick Stop, with and without a spinnaker, and using a life raft. These videos, our animated Rules Quizzes and much more: www.ukhalsey.com

BRITISH DESIGN AND BUILD TEAM FOR RUSSIAN RACE ENTRY
Portsmouth, England: The Russian entry for the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race has turned to the skills of British designer Rob Humphreys and boat builders Green Marine for their Volvo Open 70.

The design programme is well advanced at Humphreys Yacht Design's office in Lymington, about 25 km (15 miles) from Southampton. "The challenge of designing one of these boats is fascinating," Humphreys said. "The Volvo Open 70s are getting into the crossover zone between fast sailing and power boat performance and the interface between power and sail needs a totally different mindset.

"We are essentially coming at it cold even though there is obviously some data and some history of the class available. The new course will also shape our thinking as there is going to be more upwind work.

"We have gathered feedback and analysis from the boats in the last race. Obviously ABN AMRO ONE was the class boat of the field last time. That's not to say we will replicate an ABN AMRO design but it would be foolish not to absorb some of the design thinking.

"Our intention is to leave the R&D window open for as long as build time permits. We have an extensive tank testing programme planned for the next six weeks. That will take place alongside CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) work that we are running in-house."

Green Marine, also Lymington-based, have created six previous Whitbread/Volvo challengers. Most recently they were responsible for the construction of the Ericsson and Pirates of The Caribbean Volvo Open 70s for the 2005-06 race.

The build is expected to start in late August for a launch in the spring of 2008.

www.volvooceanrace.org

TROFEO S.M. LA REINA ROLEX CUP
Valencia, Spain: The IX Trofeo S.M. La Reina Rolex Cup, organized by the Royal Club Naùtico de Valencia, ended with a beautiful day of sailing and two races for the TP52s and GP42 divisions and one for the IMS and RN classes in a building easterly breeze that reached 15 knots and created a choppy sea.

There was more highly competitive racing amongst the TP52s, where Balearia led by one point overnight from Caixa Galicia and Mutua Madrilena tied in second place. Caixa Galicia achieved the best scoreline with a 2, 1 and went on to win the TP52 Division for the second year running.

After three days of hard racing, Mutua Madrilena took second place overall. After a dominant first race where she was far ahead of the fleet almost from the start, the second race of the day did not go so well. A promising first leg ended disappointingly as she lost second place to a fired up Rusal-Sinergy while Baleria got third place overall.

In the GP42 Division, which was making its debut at the Trofeo S.M. La Reina Rolex Cup, Laureano Wizner's Quebramar-Chrysler took first place overall in the regatta and so won the first leg of the GP42 Spanish National Championship. On the water, Quebramar-Chrysler, with her crew entirely composed of Spanish America's Cup sailors, put in two more top performances today and ended the event with six first places in seven races.

The IMS 670 Division saw Jose Maria Van der Ploeg's Turismo de Madrid take the overall title for the second year after three days of close fought competition with Jesus Pintos' Navantia, the current class Word Champion. Turismo finished second overall with Pablo Villar's Estrella Damm in third place.

Carlos Rodriguez's Icaro followed up his 2006 win the IMS 600 class with a win this year in the IMS 570 division. Meanwhile, Bohemia Express took first overall in the IMS Open class.

Full results at www.trofeoreina.com

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NO BREEZE, NO DISNEY FOR TRANSPAC'S FINAL START
Long Beach, California, USA: It was as if Roy E. Disney's 11th-hour decision to step off Pyewacket sucked the air right out of the final start of the 44th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Sunday.

A few hours after his news flashed around the docks at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, the fleet met balmy southeast zephyrs of only 3 to 4 knots off the Point Fermin start line in San Pedro that left the high-powered racers gasping for air. With what little wind there was coming from 170 on the compass and the west end of Santa Catalina Island to the right at 215, all 23 boats quickly tacked to port after the gun.

That tactical move also allowed them to avoid a flock of spectator power boats that had intruded well inside the starboard tack course, apparently unaware that sailboats don't sail directly upwind.

Disney, unfortunately, won't be sailing at all in what would have been his 16th Transpac.

A Pyewacket spokesperson indicated that Disney's son Roy Pat Disney is now co-skipper with Disney's longtime boat manager, Gregg Hedrick.

Disney will fly to Hawaii Tuesday to await the arrival of both boats.

Sunday's starters also included Pyewacket's strongest threat, Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, and Philippe Kahn sailing his new Pegasus 101 doublehanded with Richard Clarke. Mag 80 enjoyed a better start to windward of Pyewacket, which soon slid out from underneath and was gone, light as it was.

Pegasus 101, an Open 50 that prefers big breeze, struggled in the rear.

Sunday morning's position reports also were grim news for the boats already at sea following their starts Monday and Thursday. Saturday's upbeat reports of 24-hour runs up to 250 nautical miles at speeds up to 11 knots slipped a bit to 236 tops by Jack Taylor's Horizon, a Santa Cruz 50 from Dana Point, Calif. that averaged 9.8 knots for the day. -- RIch Roberts

www.transpacificyc.org

'WHISTLIN' DIXIE' WINS BEST BOAT AT VOLVO DUN LAOGHAIRE REGATTA
The Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta ended on Dublin Bay today (Sunday 15th July) with the outcome in 25 classes decided after a 10-race series over 4 days of racing in light, variable winds, with poor visibility often a feature.

The Volvo Trophy for Best Boat overall went to 'Whistlin' Dixie' (O'Sullivan/Keelan) of the Royal St.George YC as a result of winning Class 3 on both IRC and ECHO handicaps while the prize for Best One-Design Boat went to the Ruffian 'Ruff n Ready' (Cullen/Brown/Kirwan) from the National YC with five wins in 8 races.

Brian Spence's 'McCready Sailboats' from the Royal Ulster YC won the Laser SB3 Class and also the Salamander Trophy (presented by the Royal Dee YC) for the Best Visiting Boat. Best Keelboat Award went to David & Sarah Gorman's 'Hy5ive', winners in the Flying 15s while first overall in the Super Zeros went inevitably to Colm Barrington's 'Flash Glove' from the Royal Irish YC.

Notable overseas successes were seen in Class 1 (Keith Lord's 'Acrewed Interest' from the Isle of man), J109 (Fry/Bucking 'Jambo' from the Hamble) and J24 (Tom Clay's 'Finn M'Coul' from Southampton).

'Tigger' (Cassidy/Mulhall from Howth) had a double success in the Beneteau 31.7 and there were other Howth successes for 'Kinetic' (Murphy/Colwell) in Class 2 IRC, Gordon Knaggs' 'Jokers Wild' in Class 2 ECHO and Gillian Guinness's 'Kookaburra' in the Squibs.

Roy Dickson (Howth YC) was a popular winner of Class 0 (IRC) after good last day performances while other Howth winners included Peter & Declan McCabe and Andrew Knowles in Class 5 on IRC and ECHO respectively.

www.dlregatta.org

ECOVER HALF TON CLASSICS CUP
As if to underline their total dominance of the Ecover Half Ton Classics Cup sailed on Dublin Bay as part of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, Tino Hyland, Nigel Biggs and their crew on 'Henri-Lloyd Harmony' duly notched up their ninth IRC win in nine races (and eighth on the water) to complete a very satisfactory week for the local boat from the Royal St.George Yacht Club with a massive margin of 30 points on the next boat.

The battle for the IRC runners-up spot was eventually won by 'Misjif' (Houston/Angus, FYC) despite a poor last race result, yet finishing with 8 points to spare over third-placed 'General Tapioca' (Philippe Pilate, Royal Brussels YC) which produced steadily improving results as the championship progressed.

On Scratch, 'H-L H' was almost as emphatic, with eight wins, to head the fleet ahead of Cornish entry 'Per Elisa' (Tregear/Pullen) and Pilate taking another bronze medal position.

Overall Results:
Scratch
1. Henri-Lloyd Harmony
2. Per Elisa
3. General Tapioca

IRC
1. Henri-Lloyd Harmony
2. Misjif
3. General Tapioca

www.dlregatta.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 Derek Paterson: Brad Butterworth's vitriolic attack on Grant Dalton needs to be put in perspective. Coutts and Butterworth did not have the guts to fight to lead TNZ in they way they thought it should go - they took the sugar daddy route. Grant Dalton took on a shipwreck. He turned it into a formidable challenger - so much so there really was a "second" this time. With a bit of luck it could have been one of the greatest all time come-backs. Sir Peter would have been proud - all NZ is. What more can be said?

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THE LAST WORD
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life but that it bothers him less and less. -- Vaclav Havel

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.

Over 80,000 boats for sale on www.boats.com

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