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THE SHORTLIST
ISAF and Rolex are proud to announce the shortlisted nominees for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 2007.

The criteria for nomination for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 2007 was "outstanding sailing achievement" in the period 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2007. ISAF received numerous nominations for sailors from across the world and in a variety of disciplines who met the criteria.

The nominees are:

Female
Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb & Pippa Wilson (Gbr)
Marcelien De Koning & Lobke Berkhout (Ned)
Claire Leroy (Fra)
Evi Van Acker (Bel)

Male
Ed Baird (Usa)
Franck Cammas (Fra)
Vincenzo Onorato (Ita)
Robert Scheidt & Bruno Prada (Bra)
Rohan Veal (Aus)

The ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs) - the national governing bodies for sailing around the world - are now invited to vote for the one female nominee and one male nominee whom they feel deserves the honour of receiving the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award 2007.

The winners will be announced at the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards Dinner and Presentation which is being held on Tuesday 6 November 2007. The venue for the events is the beautiful Penha Longa, a historic and gracefully restored monastery in the hills just outside Estoril in Portugal.

Each winner will be presented with the prestigious ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award Trophy and a distinctive Rolex timepiece.

Please visit the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards Website to view the achievements of the 2007 Nominees: www.sailing.org/20355.php

VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG LASER SB3 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The first day of the Laser SB3 National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club was a windy affair with plenty of drama. With 25+ knots of northerly breeze, sunshine and calm seas, the PRO set a 1-mile windward-leeward course in Hayling Bay. The first race started after one general recall, with Mark Rushall, Russell Peters and Iain May filling the top 3 positions. Race 2 started cleanly but saw the reigning national champion, Geoff Carveth, retiring with a broken gooseneck. Marshall King, who placed 2nd in the European Championships earlier this season, won the second race. Paul Lovering, with the Greenhalgh brothers crewing, came in 2nd, while Glenn Bourke found form finishing in 3rd. Carveth recovered quickly to start the final race of the day and post a 2nd place behind Russell Peters in Tack Tick.

Following a collision soon after the start of race 3, Lawrie Smith's boat sunk after sustaining serious damage to the bow. The boat has been recovered this evening, thanks to some nifty work by Hayling Rescue and his team hope to have the repairs completed in time for tomorrow's racing.

Unsurprisingly it is Glenn Bourke in Musto who has taken the early lead in the championships overall having posted a consistent 6-3-4 today. With 3 days to go and conditions forecast to ease, consistency is likely to be the key to success. -- Clare Molloy

The top 10 after Day 1:

1. Musto, Glenn Bourke / Jeremy Troughton / Tony Kilby, 13.0
2. Shaun Beaver, Tim Fells / Sue Fells / Andy Ramus / Julie Wilkinson, 17.0
3. Out of the Blue, Marshall King / Mark Thomson / Mark Darling, 18.0
4. Tack Tick, Russell Peters / Greg Wells / James Grant, 21.0
5. Risk Premiur, Mark Rushall / James Baxter / Liz Rushall / C Savage, 22.0
6. Charlie Fish, Iain May / Harvey Hilary, 23.0
7. Bom-Chicka-Wah-Wah, Neil Harrison / Nick / Rich, 32.0
8. Champagne Blonde, Daniel Geoghegan / Chalres Cumbley / Robert Taylor, 32.0
9. Badger Racing, Paul Lovejoy / Rob & Peter Greenhalgh / Sally Wilson, 34.0
10. Team Touareg, Craig Burlton / Adam Heeley / Richard Gibson, 40.0

Full results at: www.hisc.co.uk/openresults07/sb3_nats_2007.htm

CORK WEEK 2008
"Competing at Cork Week is always a pleasure, because of the beautiful location, great sailing waters, varied racing, excellent race management and great competition. Winning in 2006 was especially satisfying as it was our first major victory in Magic Glove after many months of development, building and tuning. I'm already looking forward to 2008".

Colm Barrington - Magic Glove
Winner of IRC Zero and Boat of the Week

12th - 18th July 2008
www.corkweek.ie

STEPHANE LE DIRAISON FIRST SERIES SKIPPER AT MADEIRA
89 skippers left last Tuesday for the 16th Transat 6,50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia. 73 men and women already joined Funchal (Madeira Archipelago), on prototypes and series boats, first leg's stopover. The arrivals are succeeding one after the other with a nice regularity; sometimes competitors arrive as a group with very tight distances between each other.

The Swiss Jacques Valente (Telekurs Twing) is still navigating. He is closing the fleet at 524 nautical miles from Funchal's line. At press time 15 boats had yet to finish

Stephane le Diraison (Cultisol-Institut Curie) arrived Monday night before 11 pm (French time). He is positioned first for the series category after 6 days, 10 hours, 18 minutes and 8 seconds. He pre-empts the excellent Jean-Francois Quelen (Galanz) and Vincent Barnaud (Stgs.fr). 45 minutes after Barnaud, the Czech David Krizek arrived at Funchal's port.

89 skippers, 89 stories, and at the moment zero abandons.

The fleet sets out for the second and final leg to Bahia Brasil on Saturday 6 October.

www.transat650.org

INJURIES AND ILLNESSES IN AMERICA'S CUP YACHT RACING
The opening grafs of a study by:
School of Sport and Exercise Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.

Objectives: To determine the incidence and severity of injuries and illnesses incurred by a professional America's Cup yacht racing crew during the preparation for and participation in the challenge for the 2003 America's Cup.

Methods: A prospective study design was used over 74 weeks of sailing and training. All injuries and illnesses sustained by the 35 professional male crew members requiring medical treatment were recorded, including the diagnosis, nature, location, and mechanism of injury. The volume of sailing and training were recorded, and the severity of incidents were determined by the number of days absent from both sailing and training.

Results: In total, 220 injuries and 119 illnesses were recorded, with an overall incidence of 8.8 incidents/1000 sailing and training hours (injuries, 5.7; illnesses, 3.1). The upper limb was the most commonly injured body segment (40%), followed by the spine and neck (30%). The most common injuries were joint/ligament sprains (27%) and tendinopathies (20%). The incidence of injury was significantly higher in training (8.6) than sailing (2.2). The most common activity or mechanism of injury was non-specific overuse (24%), followed by impact with boat hardware (15%) and weight training (13%). "Grinders" had the highest overall injury incidence (7.7), and "bowmen" had the highest incidence of sailing injuries (3.2). Most of the illnesses were upper respiratory tract infections (40%).

Conclusions: The data from this study suggest that America's Cup crew members are at a similar risk of injury to athletes in other non-collision team sports. Prudent allocation of preventive and therapeutic resources, such as comprehensive health and medical care, well designed conditioning and nutritional programmes, and appropriate management of recovery should be adopted by America's Cup teams in order to reduce the risk of injury and illness.

Full study at: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16556783

-- With thanks to John James for bringing this to our attention.

AINSLIE TO BE GIVEN OLYMPIC VERDICT BY END OF THE WEEK
Ben Ainslie is expected to learn by the weekend whether he is in the British Olympic team. The double gold medal-winner was omitted when the initial nominations were announced last week despite having just won the pre-Olympic regatta off Qingdao, where the sailing events of the Beijing Games will be held, after a year away from racing the Finn single-handed dinghy. It was a repeat of his performance in China a year earlier and should have convinced the Royal Yachting Association selectors that he can win another medal.

He pointed out Qingdao's peculiarities of ultra-light breezes and roaring strong tides that he has mastered in the two regattas there. His only rival for selection in the heavyweight single-hander appears to be Ed Wright. "We haven't raced each other that much in the last couple of years," Ainslie said.

A delay in discussions with Team Origin's sailing director, Mike Sanderson, prevented the RYA from resolving the issue but it is likely to be settled at a meeting tomorrow. Either Ainslie will be nominated, with his Origin team-mates Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, or he will be asked to race Wright, presumably in the Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne in January. -- Bob Fisher in the Guardian, sport.guardian.co.uk/sailing/story/0,,2177113,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=7

* Some of the biggest British names in Olympic Classes sailing will be putting themselves to a very different test this weekend when the final RYA National Match Racing Series 2007 qualifying event takes place at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (29-30 September).

Fresh from being named skipper for Great Britain's Team Origin 2009 America's Cup campaign, double Olympic champion Ben Ainslie returns to match racing following his Finn heavyweight dinghy gold medal at the Pre-Olympic Test Event Regatta in Qingdao last month.

And Ainslie, who was part of the Team New Zealand squad that challenged for America's Cup honours in Valencia this year, is joined at WPNSA by Skandia Team GBR teammate and Sydney Olympic Finn gold medallist Iain Percy, another 2007 America's Cup veteran.

The RYA National Match Racing Series consists of six qualifying events, which kicked off this year with the BUSA Championships in March. Winners of all qualifying events go through to the Championship Finals taking place at WPNSA from 12-14 October. -- RYA, www.rya.org.uk

CONGRATULATIONS TO FRANCK CAMMAS & CREW ON "GROUPAMA III"
Gori propeller is the chosen brand of propeller for high performance multi hulls and grand prix yachts, including GROUPAMA III, which broke the record crossing the Atlantic in less than 4 days, with an average speed of 28.1 knots.

Gori propeller when folded does not auto rotate, and has the lowest drag of all sailboat propellers. Find out more at www.gori-propeller.com

DOGS OFF CHAINS
Porto Cervo, Italy: Mistral winds gusting at approximately 35-40 knots over the whole of Sardinia forced the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda Race Committee to cancel racing for today in the Rolex TP52 Global Championship.

A low pressure system which has moved in from northern Europe and is now centred over northern Italy is causing the strong north-westerly winds according to onsite meteorologist Filippo Petrucci. The system has also lowered temperatures by approximately 10 degrees since yesterday and will remain over Sardinia throughout tomorrow although winds will begin to calm while on Friday they are expected to move round to south-southeast and drop to approximately 15 knots.

The TP52 class association held an owner's meeting yesterday at the YCCS Clubhouse during which the first class president was elected: British Sailor John Cook, owner of Cristabella.

Racing is scheduled to continue tomorrow at 11.am with a long coastal race around the islands of the La Maddalena archipelago.

* Too much wind at Cannes for the 12 Meter Worlds... With the Mistral blowing 40 knots just to the west of Cannes, a strong downpour of rain and a swirling wind blowing between 10 and 25 knots and shifting from Northwest to Northeast and back, the committee decided to keep the fleet at the dock today.

When you think about the time and effort that everyone put in to be here it is sad when you get a group of boats together and can't race. I feel particularily bad for the owners. I guess that is why we have series of races in our sport! -- Paul Cayard, cayardsailing.com

GBR AND USA START WELL AT TEAM RACING WORLDS
Gandia, Spain: Great Britain 2 And USA 1 leading the general classification after the opening day of racing at the ISAF Team Racing Worlds in Gandia, Spain.

Wind marked the start of the competition, causing a delay to the expected timetable, but it did nothing to halt the progress of GBR 2 and USA 1, who lead the classification after winning all their races on Tuesday. The three Spanish teams had quite different results: ESP 1 won twice, whilst ESP 2 and the ESP 3 scored one win apiece.

Fifty-two of the 72 scheduled races were completed, with the favourites justifying their billing.

Those most important teams have achieved what was expected winning all the races in which they took part. GBR2 and USA1 had six consecutive and dominant wins. The other two GBR representatives, GBR 1 and GBR 3, did not have such good results with three wins and three defeats for the later and GBR 1 also losing a match. The USA 2, the second American team, started really well, but was clearly beaten by GBR 1. The Australian team, one of the strongest candidates for the Gandia trophy, has won one and lost four with Murray Jones; as for AUS 2 and AUS 3, they have three and four victories respectively. Of the team Irish teams, IRL 1 was in the best position at the end of the day, achieving three wins, in the six races. IRL 2 scored two wins, whilst IRL 3 only got one. The only Japanese team in the competition remains winless.

As for the Spanish teams, ESP 1, representing the Comunitat Valenciana, had two wins against IRL 2 and IRL 3. The "derby" between the other two representatives was won by ESP 2, and finally ESP-3 has had its first and only win against GBR 3. -- ISAF, sailing.org

Event site: www.rcngandia.com/team-racing-world

HERE WE GO AGAIN !
Ericsson Racing Team will shortly take delivery of the very first new generation VOR70 rig at their state of the art facility in Kista, Sweden. Global Yacht Transportation specialist Peters & May collected the 32 metre mast from Southern Spars in New Zealand and loaded the carbon rig onto a vessel bound for Northern Europe.

Whilst this is the first new generation VOR70 rig to emerge from Southern Spars, the job of preparing Ericsson for training started several months ago for Peters & May with the installation of training equipment at their base in Lanzarote. www.petersandmay.com

GAASTRA DUTCH OPEN MATCH RACING
Rotterdam, Netherlands: On Saturday 6 October the Gaastra Dutch Open Match Racing 2007 starts with a competitive international fleet. During two days, twelve teams will compete on the Kralingse Plas. Six of them have a foreign nationality. The organization - the Dutch J22 class and the Rotterdam Sailing Club - invited those crews to come to the Netherlands. With seven competitors from the international top 100 and quite some Dutch talents it is guaranteed to become an exciting weekend. The organization will have J22´s at its disposal to sail the races, which are led by Theo Smits from the Rotterdam Sailing Club.

The highest ranking skipper is Carst Kemmling from Germany, who is thirtieth on the ISAF World ranking from August 2007. After him comes Jelle Roos (46), who recently won three Grade 3-events with Klaartje Zuiderbaan on the foredeck. -- Diana Bogaards

The complete fleet consists of the following skippers:

1. Cartsen Kemmling (FRA), 30th place ISAF Ranking
2. Jelle Roos (NED), 46th
3. Max Gurgel (GER), 56th
4. Christian Ponthieu (FRA), 58th
5. Rui Boia (POR), 59th
6. Fabio Mazzoni (ITA), 68th
7. Marcus Bohren (SUI), 98th
8. Gaston Loos (NED), 146th
9. Jeroen den Boer (NED), 175th
10. Persijn Brongers (NED), 218th
11. Jurjen Feitsma (NED), 282th
12. Lennart Gernand (NED), -

www.j22.nl

COULD BE STEVE FOSSETT'S TRACK...
Relying on new leads from Air Force experts, crews looking for famed aviator Steve Fossett plan to comb a rugged area near Death Valley by air and foot, authorities said Tuesday.

Gary Derks, the state Department of Public Safety official in charge of the search, said the Air Force analyzed images picked up by radar and satellite and "picked up what could be Mr. Fossett, his track."

"It gives us an idea, if it's him, what direction he was going," Derks said of the wealthy adventurer, missing for more than three weeks.

Derks said the area stretches about 100 miles to the southeast from where Fossett took off September 3, an airstrip on a million-acre ranch owned by hotel mogul Barron Hilton. Maps show the area would include Nevada's remote Silver Peak Range, close to Death Valley National Park in California.

"There's nothing definite, nothing concrete," Derks said. "These are just some hits that we want to track." -- Full article on CNN: www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/25/steve.fossett.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

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 Len Davies: Ref Bob Fisher's summation in # 1323 of the AC scenario as it presently stands, I can only propose three large cheers and gins for the Fish whose opinion is never far off target!

THE LAST WORD
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity. -- Richard Milhous Nixon

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.

www.YachtsandCruisers.com the new place to buy and sell prestige boats, the website has been designed to showcase high-end boats. People looking to buy prestige boats will be able to easily navigate their way around the site quickly. The portfolio of thousands of boats can be viewed by category, make, location and price. Alternatively the 'Advanced Search' facility will benefit those buyers who have a specific boat in mind.

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