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GRAEL SIGNS WITH ERICSSON
Ericsson Racing team have appointed Brazil's Torben Grael as skipper of their international entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09.

The 47-year-old Grael, who led the Brasil 1 boat to third place overall in an eventful 2005-06 campaign, replaces John Kostecki who left the Ericsson two-boat project in August this year.

Grael's achievements make impressive reading. Gold medals in the Star class at the Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996) and Athens (2004), silver in the Soling in Los Angeles (1984) and Star bronze in Seoul (1988) and Sydney (2000). He also boasts a string of world and European titles.

He has also been involved in three America's Cups campaigns including the role of tactician for Luna Rossa Challenge in Valencia at this year's event. Prior to the 2005-06 Volvo, Grael was a member of the Innovation Kvaerner crew in the 1997-98 Whitbread.

Meanwhile, Ericsson's Nordic entry, headed by Swedish skipper Anders Lewander, has been strengthened with the signing of two Danish crew members Stefan Myralf and Jens Dolmer.

The Ericsson Racing Team is currently based at their training base in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. Ericsson Racing Team will participate with two boats in the next Volvo Ocean Race. One will have an international crew and the other will be all-Nordic crew. Both boats will be built by Killian Bushe next to Ericsson's headquarters in Kista, Stockholm.

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of the famous ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante, it will for the first time, take in ports in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China and India. Spanning some 39,000 nautical miles, 8,000 more than the previous edition in 2005-06, it will stop at around 11 ports and take more than nine months to complete. -- Lizzie Ward

volvooceanrace.org

ELEVEN INTO TEN DOESN'T GO
What makes a good Olympic class? What do you think are the important criteria? Is it availability and affordability? Should it be high performance, or maybe low performance? After all sometimes the slower a boat, the more tactical the racing. But then faster boats can be more fun to sail, and certainly more fun to watch.

Is it media appeal? After all, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) say that minority interest sports like sailing and equestrianism need to start appealing to broader audiences to attract greater share of the global TV audience during the Olympic fortnight.

In a little more than two weeks from now, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) will sit down to determine which will be the categories for the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth, England, in the summer of 2012.

So over the next two weeks, SailJuiceBlog.com will be running a series of articles looking at the Olympic classes, and weighing up the pros and cons of the existing classes - and a few new ones besides. I'd like to hear what you think too, and in the next few days I'll be launching an Olympic Classes Survey, where you can vote for your most wanted - and most hated - Olympic boats.

Olympic sailing is at a critical juncture. The IOC has handed ISAF the task of whittling down the existing 11 categories that will be represented at Qingdao 2008, down to just 10 for Weymouth 2012.

A game of musical chairs then.

An almighty blood bath, more likely. Have no doubt that this November in Estoril, Portugal, there will be more backstabbing going on than when Julius Caesar unwittingly strolled into the Roman Senate for the last time.

Not only that, but there are a few young pretenders waiting in the wings. At Hyeres back in April, ISAF hosted an Evaluation Trial for a number of high performance doublehanders seeking to win nomination for a new Women's Skiff category.

After all, the men have the 49er, so why shouldn't the women have some fun too?

Also, there is a strong Women's Match Racing lobby winging its way to Estoril this November. They didn't get very far last time they tried in November 2000. On that occasion the Yngling stole their thunder, but perhaps their time has come. -- Andy Rice in his new blog www.SailJuiceBlog.com

The full article is another 1000 words on the relative merits of the Olympic Classes at present. Well worth a read. I was in the conference room (betting shots of whiskey with Robert Wilkes, if memory serves) when the last slate of Olympic boats was chosen by the ISAF and it's as political as sailing ever gets. Just trying to guess how any one Member National Authority is going to vote is complicated enough, never mind over 100 with myriads of conflicting influences and interests.

SILVER JUST ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH
Ullman Sails congratulates U.S. Tornado sailors John Lovell and Charlie Olgetree for their hard-fought victory at the U.S. Olympic Trials in San Diego, October 3-14, 2007. The team needed to win the last four races in the series in order to win the trials - something they hadn't been able to do earlier in the regatta. Competing with Ullman Sails, Lovel and Ogletree proved their experience, focus and determination equal to the challenge. When everything is on the line, top competitors choose the 'Fastest Sails on the Planet."

For more information, contact an Ullman Sails loft and visit www.ullmansails.com

FINALLY!
It seems like the Pot au noir is about to be over for the head of Transat 6,50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia's fleet's leaders. It will soon be a bad memory. A Pot au noir that stretched until Equator, and that, since three days plays with sailors nerves: changeable winds, whirling, rising and disappearing depending on the innumerable storms that showered the Minis. From a record speed in the beginning of the week, the race is back to more conventional speed. Yves Le Blevec could reassure himself last night by being the first, as expected, to leave the Pot. Is now about a hundred miles from Equator, he should be this evening less than 1,000 miles from Bahia.

Yves has augmented his speed enough to be, this morning, forty miles ahead of second placed David Sineau (Bretagne lapins). Adrien Hardy (Brossard) obviously had a problem that forced him to u-turn yesterday before coming back in a more direct path. 5 sailors took advantage of the situation. Behind Sineau, Yves serious contestants for the general ranking as Ronan Deshayes (PCO technologies) 4th in Madeira and Fabien Despres 6th will be fighting until the end for the podium. The have serious opportunities since the misfortunes of Isabelle Joschke (Degremont Synergie) and Samuel Manuard (Sitting Bull), and they know it. Ronan is at the moment ranked 4th sailing tack to tack with Nick Brennan (Rafiki), he is gently heading for the direct path at a speed that occurs the best for him. Slower to restart, Fabien Despres is this morning over 100 miles behind Le Blevec and 47 from the "podium group".

Herve Piveteau (Jules-Imprimerie cartoffset) and Stephane Le Diraison (Cultisol-Institut Curie) continue to share the Series boats fleet commands. They are 188 miles from Yves Le Blevec. But only 4 miles separate the two sailors and this morning Herve was the one in charge of the fleet's leadership. They should start to worry about the other Series boats come back by the occidental path (closer to the direct route). The Spanish Gerard Marin Julia (C.N.Llanca) and the Czech David Krizek (Atlantik ft) seem to be the only sailors able to defy the two French at the final sprint.

Top ten at 1700 UTC 18 October:

1. Yves le Blevec, Actual, Proto, 998.04
2. David Sineau, Bretagne lapins, Proto, 54.97 nm to leader
3. Ronan Deshayes, Pco technologies, Proto, 81.63
4. Nicholas Brennan, Rafiki, Proto, 82.02
5. Kristian Hajnsek, Adria mobil, Proto, 137.17
6. Fabien Despres, Soitec, Proto, 140.84
7. Francois Salabert, Areas assurances, Proto, 156.02
8. Adrien Hardy, Brossard, Proto, 166
9. Yann Riou, Cameleon, Proto, 166.12
10. Clayton Burkhalter, Acadia, Proto, 176.68

www.transat650.org

AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC TEAM ANNOUNCED
The first members of the 2008 Australian Olympic Team were announced at a press conference in Sydney on 18 October 2007.

Following nomination from Yachting Australia the Australian Olympic Committe is pleased to select 16 outstanding sailors. A decision on the women's Laser Radial class will be made shortly.

Hopes are high for the sailing team to produce several medals in Beijing. Below are short biographies on those athletes selected. Full biographies will appear on olympics.om.au in November.

Elise Rechichi - 470
Tessa Parkinson - 470
Nathan Wilmot - 470
Malcolm Page - 470
Tom Slingsby - Laser
Jessica Crisp - RS:X
Darren Bundock - Tornado
Glenn Ashby - Tornado
Nicky Bethwaite - Yngling (subject to medical assessment on 8 January 2008)*
Karyn Gojnich - Yngling (subject to Nicky Bethwaite satisfying nomination conditions on 8 January 2008)
Angela Farrell - Yngling (subject to Nicky Bethwaite satisfying nomination conditions on 8 January 2008)
Nathan Outteridge - 49er
Ben Austin - 49er
Iain Murray - Star
Andrew Palfrey - Star
Anthony Nossiter - Finn

* In late 2007, Nicky suffered a setback to her Olympic campaign after breaking both her arms in a bike riding accident.

Bios at yachting.org.au

29ER EUROCUP
221 teams from 20 countries competed in the 2007 29er Eurocup. The tour started in Denia - Spain during March and while they did not win the Polish team of Lukasz Przybytek & Krzysztof Mongird showed the fleet a little of what was to come.

The fleet moved to Cavalaier in France where the French team of Vincent Berthez & Thibault Heurley proved that they could sail asymmetrics as well as the rest of the world. Weymouth in Great Britain was the next stop - a stronghold for the 29er where the Poles showed once again they were a formidable team by beating all the top Brits.

The Dutch Youth and Open 29er champs were next where Pepi Betini came out of retirement crewed by a new slim Miguel Kasters to show the younger teams that age is no barrier! Age was again no barrier in Kiel where Benjamin Friehoff & Johanna Munding cleaned up at their local event. It was a German victory again in Switzerland where Phillip & Thilo Krammer took the fleet apart at Silva Plana.

The big one was the Europeans in Sweden where over 100 boats competed for not only a Eurocup round but the European Championship as well. The event was won by the American girls Emily Dellenbaugh & Briana Provancha but the European crown went to Lukasz Przybytek & Krzysztof Mongird giving them another top result.

Finally, Riva on Lake Garda in Italy was the last leg. James Peters & Ed Fitzgerald - who has had an unlucky year to say the least, from Great Britain had the honour of winning the last event of a very successful Eurocup.

Most dates are in place for 2008 and we look forward to see yet more boats take part. -- from Ovington Boats

1. Lukasz Przybytek / Krzysztop Mongird, POL, 11 points
2. Oliver Rechnitzer / Peter Lang, DEN, 64
3. Katrine Ditmar Andersen / Kaspar GIodesen / Rie Luxhoi, DEN, 82
4. Tom Lange / Tim Lange, GER, 109
5. Jason Hogendoorn / Kaj Bocker, NED, 131

WORTH THE TRIP - TWO SPECTACULAR SOUTH FLORIDA VENUES
Key West in January and Miami Beach in March. Ship your IRC racer and double your fun. New in 2008 - the Acura Miami Grand Prix will offer racing for a second IRC class. The preliminary lower handicap limit for the IRC 2 class is 1.085. Ideal conditions, professional race management, world class competition and shore side fun that only Key West and South Beach can deliver. Acura Key West 2008, presented by Nautica (Jan 21 - 25) and the 2008 Acura Miami Grand Prix (Mar 6 - 9).

Notices of Race and planning details: www.premiere-racing.com

RUBAN BLEU RECORD ON LAKE GENEVA
Geneva, Switzerland: The Decision 35 catamarans Smart Home and Julius Baer have beaten the thirteen years old record of the Bol d'Or course, between Geneva and le Bouveret (and back). This prestigious record is called the Ruban Bleu.

Smart Home's crew decided to start their record attempt at 10:30 AM (Thursday October 18), soon after the arrival of the strong northerly breeze. Their goal was to benefit from a good angle whilst avoiding big waves when beating against the wind. Julius Baer started five minutes later whilst Cadence - another D 35 was already on her way since fifteen minutes. Smart Home and Julius Baer sailed out of the "petit lac" in less than one hour. They both decided to cross the lake towards its northern bank; a longer route usually considered safer as more windy than the French coast. This choice proved to be right as Cadence got stuck alongside the French coast and had to give up.

Smart Home reached the half course mark after two hours and fifty minutes, a few boat lengths ahead of Julius Baer. "That's when we knew we had lost the record", commented Christian Michel, Smart Home's owner. "They've sailed better than us and they deserve the record. But I am extremely pleased as this is my first season on a Decision 35."

After rounding the mid-course mark, both crews knew that they had to accelerate on their way back to Geneva in order to beat the record; they also knew that the wind was going to be stronger and the angle more favorable.

Smart Home and Julius Baer sailed neck to neck from Le Bouveret to Geneva, surfing like mad and almost capsizing on several occasions. The show was extraordinary when they both arrived in sight of the arrival, under full main sail and big gennaker, sailing very close from the limit of the boats.

Smart Home was first over the arrival line, in 4 hours 57 ' 36'' (four minutes better than the previous record). But Julius Baer crossed sixteen seconds later; having started five minutes later than Smart Home, Julius Baer is the new holder of the record.

The man of the day is called Edouard Kessi. Crewmember on board Triga IV, he was also sailing onboard "Tilt", who broke the monohull's record last month. He sailed today on Julius Baer. As for Philippe Cardis, the owner and helmsman of the new record holder, he commented that he didn't think the record was reachable for a Decision 35. "But last month, when Smart Home concluded an attempt in 5h 30', it became clear that it was achievable." -- Bernard Schopfer

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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* From J. Joseph Bainton: Implications of an Oracle/BMW Court Victory: The clarity of John Rousmaniere's explanation of the issues before Justice Cahn is to be applauded. Let me add one, small thought. If BMW/Oracle prevails in court for the reasons Mr. Rousmaniere so cogently explains, will it then be in a position to insist that Allinghi defend in a Swiss built yacht?

The important fact that I think many people overlook is that all the "one-design" America's Cup competitions (starting with the J Class) have been "one-design" as the result of a written agreement between the Defending Yacht Club and the Challenging Yacht Club, frequently referred to as a protocol. These agreements have over time materially eliminated the country of origin provisions of the Deed of Gift as well as the requirement that the foreign Challenger arrive on her own bottom.

Dennis Conner's successful defense in 1984 in an American designed and built catamaran was unquestionably forced upon San Diego Yacht Club, which quite publicly stated it would have much preferred to defend in a 12 Metre following a vigorous and truly international Louis Vuitton Cup held in its waters, BUT run by the challengers with the invaluable help of Bruno Trouble (courtesy of Louis Vuitton).

The changes/advances advocated by Allinghi are not inherently bad ideas. The bad idea was to try to impose them by fiat rather than agreement.

Perhaps one of the smartest things Louis Vuitton ever did was to donate the Louis Vuitton Cup and sponsor the Louis Vuitton Series. Regrettably, one of the other smartest things the company has done was to walk away from the America's Cup. Who now will be the "honest broker" negotiating between Defender and would-be Challengers as to the next "one-design" America's Cup Class?

Two more questions I find interesting are (a) who owns the rights to the certification marks "America's Cup Class" and the A/C Class Insignia displayed on mainsails indicating that recent Cup Contenders had "measured in" under the rules of that one-design class and (b) in light of those rights, if any, what name will be given to the next generation one-design class that by agreement races for the America's Cup and what insignia will that class' mainsail display? There are no United States registrations for either A/C certification mark, but maybe ACM has the issue under control.

* From Paul Bryans: The comments about the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron not being "incorporated" as required by the Deed of Gift have always left me scratching my head since it is quite clearly a proper yacht club. John Rousmaniere has kindly quoted the wording and he states that it is not "incorporated, patented, or licensed by the legislature, admiralty, or other executive department". However, since the RNYS holds a UK Admiralty warrant allowing members yachts to wear an undefaced blue ensign, it is clearly recognised by the Admiralty as a pre-eminant club and is therefore, in a way, licenced by them and must have been for a century or so.

* From Don Findlay, Secretary General to the F18 World Council: Despite various nonsense going on with the RYA and the ISAF and multihulls, the International Formula 18 Catamaran Association goes from strength to strength. Each National Chairman is forecasting an further improvement in members, each catamaran builder is promising even more boats for 2008. The Association is now the largest of its type that the sailing multihull world has ever seen.

For those new to F18 catamarans, they are build to a simple box formula, covering length, width, sail area, mast height, weight and a few other factors, an increasing number of builders are making them where they compete on level terms. Some of the builders employ the top sailors from the Olympic Tornado fleets and so competition is of the highest level. Boats are being built in Australian, Europe, USA , Brazil and Argentina with twelve main builders and many others just building one or two a year.

The 9th F18 World Championships are being held in Vigo in Northern Spain in July 2008 where 160 teams (two sailors) are expected to compete. Preliminary plans are already made for Worlds to go to Belgium in 2009 and Argentina in 2010.

For further information, please go to www.F18-international.org

* From Jeremy Greenaway: As far as 'golden oldies' are concerned, 'Butt hasn't mentioned Mike Richey, so I'll correct that! Mike celebrated his 90th birthday this year - I think ashore for the first time in 47 years, if my tinto hazed memory serves me of a session of yarning with him a while back.

Mike took over the whipstaff of Jester - Blondie Hasler's modified Folkboat that was one of the five starters in the very first Singlehanded Trans Atlantic Race in 1960 - after the second edition, and took part in every single STAR up to 2000.

In 1997, at the age of 80, he was presented with a world record certificate by the Guinness Book of Records recognising him as the oldest solo sailor to cross the North Atlantic, taking just 31 days west-east in the Jester replica.

Although she's now been sold on (to Trevor Leek) Mike's ever-young and still sailing.

FEATURED BROKERAGE
2003 Dufour 36, 35,003 Euros, lying Pornichet France.

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www.yachtsandcruisers.com/boat/Dufour/21168/

THE LAST WORD
Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid. -- Walter Winchell

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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