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BERTARELLI BRINGS AMERICA'S CUP, LAWSUIT TO NEW YORK YACHT CLUB
Ernesto Bertarelli brought the America's Cup back to the New York Yacht Club today, placing the silver chalice on its original pedestal for the first time since the longest winning streak in sports ended in 1983.

The billionaire yachtsman also brought along a defense of his side in a court fight brewing over control of the race between two of the world's richest men.

Bertarelli, 42, who successfully defended the Cup for landlocked Switzerland in July in the waters off Valencia, Spain, sat by the limestone fireplace in the club's Model Room explaining why he'd like to change the rules for the world's oldest sporting championship and is willing to fight for those changes in an Oct. 22 court hearing.

Bertarelli said that his changes -- which include enlarging the boats used in the race and reducing the time between competitions to two years from four -- will make the 156-year- old event more marketable and profitable. Oracle Corp. chief Larry Ellison, one of Bertarelli's competitors, says Bertarelli is manipulating the rules in his own favor.

The two billionaires will present their cases to the Supreme Court of New York, where Golden Gate Yacht Club, home of Ellison's BMW-Oracle Racing syndicate, is suing Bertarelli. The suit says Bertarelli set up a fake Spanish yacht club under his own control to ram through unfair and unprecedented rules.

``All of us are just astonished by what is taking place here,'' said Tom Ehman, head of external affairs for BMW-Oracle. ``We don't understand what was wrong with what was done last time.'' -- Aaron Kuriloff in Bloomberg.com, full article at www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aVGhKYd15Lo8&refer=amsports

ROLEX MIAMI OCR
Though it will have fewer classes for its 2008 edition, US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR again will fulfill an annual promise to supply world-class racing to sailors eyeing the next Olympic and Paralympic Games. The event, scheduled for its 19th running January 27 to February 2, will deliver elite level competition in four of the Olympic classes (Laser, Laser Radial, Star, and Yngling) and all three Paralympic classes (2.4mR, SKUD-18, and Sonar) chosen for the 2008 Games in Qingdao, China. Racing will be eliminated, however, for another seven of the Olympic classes (49er, 470 Men & Women, Finn, Neil Pryde RS:X Men & Women, and Tornado) due to near-direct conflicts with their world championships held overseas.

"The 2008 Rolex Miami OCR will be abbreviated, yes," said US SAILING's High Performance Director Director Gary Bodie, "because it is critical, especially in an Olympic year, for sailors to attend their world championships. For those classes without conflicts, however, it's business as usual, which means full-on competition among the best sailors in the world and even more excitement because we are so close to the Olympics and Paralympics."

Bodie explained that the Rolex Miami OCR traditionally is the only International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Grade-One ranking event in the U.S. for competition in all 14 Olympic and Paralympic classes. Last year, it hosted more sailors -- 855 from 49 countries -- than it ever had before, with a whopping 71 percent of the athletes having traveled from abroad.

The Rolex Miami OCR consists of five days of fleet racing from Monday January 28 through Friday, February 1, and one day of top-ten medal racing (for Olympic classes only) on Saturday, February 2, replicating the new Olympic format that will debut in Qingdao.

Regatta Headquarters for the 2008 Rolex Miami OCR are at the US Sailing Center, where the Laser classes also will be located. The Stars will be hosted at Coral Reef Yacht Club, the Ynglings at Key Biscayne Yacht Club, and all Paralympic classes at Shake-A-Leg Miami's facilities. The City of Miami and the Miami Dade Sports Commission also have joined to support the event.

TIGHTLY FOUGHT VICTORY AT FRENCH FORMULA 18 RAID REGATTA
Ullman Sails customers competing in the Formula 18 fleet were a dominant force at the 5th Raid des Corsaires 2007 in Saint Malo, France. The two-day series, September 22-23, featured two long distance courses for sport catamarans 16-21 feet long. In the 95-boat F18 fleet, overall winners Emmanuel and Vincent Boulogne won the regatta by only 34 seconds over second place finishers Francois Morvan and Mathieu Vandame. All top five F18 competitors raced with full Ullman Sails inventories. Highly skilled competitors keep choosing the 'Fastest Sails on the Planet' for unparalleled performance.

Contact an Ullman loft and visit www.ullmansails.com

VOLVO OCEAN RACE
The Volvo Ocean Race has marked the one-year countdown to the start of 2008-09 event in Alicante, Spain, with the launch of a new free on-line TV channel allowing enthusiasts to enjoy the drama and history of the great event on their home computers.

The race's further leap into the multimedia age is in line with the race's commitment to using the latest in media technology to give a worldwide audience access to the race any time, anywhere, during its 39,000 nautical mile odyssey around the globe.

The race has contracted the British company, Premium TV/Inform Group, leading on-line specialists in TV channels, to provide the new website service ( www.volvooceanrace.tv ).

The new channel will be broadcasting in wide screen and over the coming months will be progressively releasing historical archive stretching back to the first Whitbread Around the World Whitbread Yacht Race in 1973.

Online viewers will not only be able follow their sailing heroes, but will also have access to an extensive back catalogue of features exclusive to the site.

* The 2008-09 race will use a state-of-the-art race management tracking system to monitor the progress of the fleet on its 39,000 nautical mile voyage round the globe.

The system, known as Saffire, has been developed by Bluefinger , the maritime division of Cybit, a UK online telematics service provider. It will be used to track the position, direction and speed of each yacht.

The Saffire system uses the international maritime satellite (INMARSAT) network to give accurate position reports which will be refreshed every 15 minutes to monitor the safety of each yacht and allow accurate race scoring and leadership tables to be maintained.

Saffire will also feed data to the race's website and 3D viewing platform enabling visitors to http://www.volvooceanrace.org to follow the fleet's progress online.

The Saffire solution has traditionally been used in the areas of fisheries management, economic exclusion zone monitoring and offshore oil and gas exploration.

* This week on the Volvo Sailing podcast we talk to the current leader of the World Match Racing Championships, Ian Williams, we hear from 49er star Stevie Morrison, and with one year to go to the start of the next Volvo Ocean Race, we get all the latest from race director Andy Hindley.

As ever, live Thurs eve/Fri morning at: www.volvooceanrace.com/podcast/

A-CLASS CATAMARAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
With a record setting 100 boats pre-registered, the 2007 A-Class World Championship sponsored by Ronstan, FSE Robline, Corum, and West Marine will take place at The Islander resort hotel in Islamorada, FL. The Islander has been hosting the US A-Class for its last two midwinter race weeks and was the unanimous choice by the US class as the best venue to host this world championship. The race site is a 9 square area of the Atlantic Ocean protected by an offshore reef. Sailors will enjoy clear aqua water and hopefully warm and consistent easterly winds of 8-15 knots.

The international contingent includes Glenn Ashby from Australia who will be racing to defend his 2006 title. Glenn is a multiple world champion in the class and is regarded as the best A-Class sailor ever. In addition, Glenn is regarded as a favorite to medal in the 2008 Tornado Olympic event in Qingdao, China with his teammate Darren Bundock. In addition to Ashby, other top international sailors racing will include past world champions Scott Anderson and Nils Bunkenberg, Olympic medalists Andrew Landenberger and Goran Marstrom, New Zealand champion Murray Philpott, top Dutch sailors Sjoerd Hoekstra, Pieterjan Dwarshuis, and Piet Saarberg, Alinghi designer Mike Drummond (New Zealand), and top Swiss sailors Dieter Melcher and Luc De Bois.

Many sailors are watching this regatta closely as several new platforms are making their debuts. These include the next evolution of the Marstrom which now has hulls that are canted and has a revised volume distribution for better performance in waves and chop, the Nikita which is an evolution of the original Flyer, a Peter Cogan design that is an evolution of the proven Bimare XJ, and the radical LR2 designed and built by Ian and John Lindhal. These new designs will be joined by the proven Flyer Mk I and Mk II, the Bimare XJ, and the Melvin A2/A3. Except for the potential appearance of the Hall solid wing rig, most sailors will likely be using carbon masts from Hall, Fiberfoam, Saarberg, or Marstrom and square top sails from Ashby, Glaser, Ullman, and Landenberger. While clearly a development class, advancements in A-Class performance have for the last 10 years been subtle never immediately making obsolete the current designs and allowing active sailors to pass on older but still competitive equipment to new sailors. This trend has been very good for class growth.

The Blue Water classic regatta will be held on November 8-9 as a warm up for the Worlds. -- Bob Hodges

www.acatworlds.com

DESIGN ENGINEERS | PROJECT MANAGERS - OPPORTUNITY CALLING
Southern Spars require Project Managers and Design Engineers for their New Zealand operation. With increase demand for grand prix racing and super-yacht rigs, the company needs more people to join their dynamic team. If you've a genuine interest in yachting, 'innovating' and making things happen, visit www.southernspars.com for more information.

JOCHEN SCHUMANN SAYS AC POSTPONEMENT WILL HARM SAILING
With the new Head of Team Jochen Schumann Team Germany is on schedule structuring its team for the 33. America's Cup. Schumann: "We have accepted the challenge to race in a new boat class, the AC90 class, in the summer of 2009 in Valencia. Our new designer team is forming within the next few days at the team base in Valencia in order to design the first 90ft America's Cup Yacht according to the new rules and to then build it in Germany."

Team Germany registered on the basis of the recent protocol in July 2007, which was concluded between the Yacht Club Societe Nautique Geneve (SNG) representing Alinghi and the Spanish yacht club CNEV. Michael Scheeren, CEO of the German Challenge: "We are expecting more protocol details from the America's Cup Management in the next couple of days. We are prepared to accept changes. Everybody has to aim at the creation of attractive rules for all participating teams and sailing fans."

Team Germany is convinced that the America's Cup is strong enough to solve all problems in the established bodies with the defender Alinghi, all other teams as well as with the event organizer ACM. Despite the civil law suit of the Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW Oracle Racing against Alinghi, Team Germany supports all attempts to involve BMW Oracle Racing in the existing circle of challengers. Schumann: "The situation of a possible postponement for the planned 33. America's Cup in 2009 would harm the sport and its image worldwide. We are supporting all attempts of an amicable arrangement." Jochen Schumann further: "The proposed boat class in the new protocol underlines the claim of leadership of the America's Cup in the sailing world. We are expecting fantastic races in the sailing arena off Valencia in 2009." -- Kai Meesters www.ui-team-germany.de

From BYM News: www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=16161

VELUX 5 OCEANS RACE IS REJECTED
Only weeks after announcing that Velux is going ahead with its sponsorship of a second 5 Oceans solo round the world race, organisers Clipper Ventures have hit a major snag: the race has been categorically rejected by the Open 60 class in favour of the rival Barcelona World Race, run by Ellen MacArthur's and Mark Turner's OC Group.

IMOCA, the Open 60 skippers' association, has highlighted what it calls 'previous problems…with the last two editions of the Velux 5 Oceans' and says 'an internal survey showed the race was mostly not part of the skippers' priorities'.

Instead, the class is putting its full weight behind the fourly-yearly Route du Rhum race in 2010 and a second edition of the two-handed Barcelona World Race later the same year.

This leaves Clipper Ventures with a big problem: it will be extremely difficult to attract top sponsors and skippers to the Velux 5 Oceans. -- Elaine Bunting, with more on her blog: www.yachtingworld.com/yw/blog/elaine_bunting.html

LAUNCHINGS
* Saturday, September 29th was a day of celebration on the pontoons in Port Camargue. IMOCA Open 60 Groupe Bel was christened by Antoine Fievet - ambassador for the founding family and administrators of the company - who took some liberty with tradition. The Laughing Cow painted on the red hull was not bathed in champagne bubbles, but in a litre of milk! www.groupebel-voile.com

* Tuesday morning, Paprec-Virbac 2 was put back into the water with her new keel fin. The team has taken advantage of this snag and have done a complete check-up of the boat. Paprec-Virbac 2 is now ready for the big event, the Barcelona World Race, which start will be on November 11th.

* On 27th of September 2007 the wooden hull of a megayacht "Imperia" arrived at the Liman shipyard, (Ukraine, Nikolayev) for further completion. It is the unique sailing-motor schooner of unlimited area navigation, created as an individual project under supervision "Bureau Veritas" (France) and according to MCA requirements.

Her hull - constructed in Russia - is built completely from the Caucasian oak (except the keel and a few reinforcements). The wooden hull on the dimensions applies for a record in Guinness book..

The yacht is under construction under the order and at active management of the "Aries Pacific Ltd." (New Zealand) for the English company. The manager of project is Alexander Kirichuk. Estimated time for completion of a yacht is 2009. -- megayachts.ru/en/news/13/309/

* The Longtze Premier, a 6.8 meter sport boat, developed by the China Team America's Cup sailors and engineers on an original design from Steve Thompson, will make its public debut at the Shenzhen International Airport during the October holiday. The boat will remain on display from now until November 31st at the Shenzhen International Airport Terminal A.

The Longtze Premier will make its competitive debut October 20th and 21st in the China Cup Regatta, at the Longsheer Yacht Club, in Shenzhen. China Team will enter two boats with crews selected from members of our America's Cup program including three-time America's Cup skipper Pierre Mas.

After completing the test program, the boat yard will produce 5 new boats each month.

* Helios, the result of a collaboration between Perini Navi's naval architects and Ron Holland, is the second steel-hulled 45-Metre yacht to be launched by this Italian shipyard. The third yacht in this class will be delivered to her owners in Spring 2009.

The Perini Navi-built aluminium mast that rises over 50 metres above the waterline carries a sail area of almost 1,200m2 which is handled by seven of Perini Navi's reel captive winches. Perini Navi electric furlers handle the in-boom furling system that stores the 432m2 main sail within the carbon fibre boom.

Helios is the third sailing yacht to be launched by Perini Navi in 2007. Selene, 56-Metre ketch was launched in January, and Tamsen was launched in April.

Within the next 36 months Perini Navi will deliver 10 further blue-water sailing yachts to their owners. -- www.perininavi.it/schedanews.cfm?IDF=170

* The first carbon deck of the Veolia Oceans one- design for the SolOceans was removed from the mould Monday 24 September by the Jean- Marie Vaur team at the JMV Industries yard in Cherbourg (Lower Normandy). It was delivered to Caen yesterday, where Marc Lefèbvre's (V1D2) teams took over with the help of Christian Brit, in charge of the series production of the Veolia Oceans for SailingOne. Hull and deck are assembled today. The launch of the first Veolia Oceans one- design is scheduled in a month's time.

The next important date for the SolOceans is Friday 5 October at 16h00 in Paris. Mrs Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, will reveal the name of the New Zealand stopover city for the SolOceans in the New Zealand Embassy in Paris, in the presence of Her Excellency Mrs Sarah Dennis, the New Zealand Ambassador for France.

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THE LAST WORD
When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice. -- Otto von Bismarck

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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