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LEADING YACHTS SURGE INTO BASS STRAIT, SLADE STILL HOPEFUL OF RECORD
The three maxis leading the Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet entered Bass Strait around 4am this morning with Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI still in the lead.

At 0500hrs the Sydney maxi, which is aiming for a hat trick of line honours wins, held a 9 mile break on Mike Slade's British maxi City Index Leopard, with Skandia another 6 miles astern. Nevertheless, with the wind now on the nose, Slade is hopeful he may yet wind the local race favourite in.

"We're trying hard to pull back Wild Oats XI after her splendid downhill run. We are in reaching conditions now, doing 14 to 15 knots with our reaching sails up," Slade said at 0500hrs this morning. "We have 12 knots of breeze and there is plenty of west in it.

"The 10 hour downhill run was not our best suit but we quite like this. We are trying to get some separation from Wild Oats XI by going east looking for stronger wind and at the moment we are getting it.

"We have the whole of Bass Strait ahead of us and these are conditions we like so we must make the most of it."

Slade said his plan at this stage is to get close enough to Wild Oats XI by the time they reach Flinders Island that they can take advantage of any opportunities that may come their way in the quirky winds off the Tasmanian Coast. "We've got no idea what will happen when we get to Tasmania. At the moment it is a pure speed race."

Slade believes that, with the amount of ground the maxis covered in the first 10 hours of the race the record is still a possibility even though the front has slowed them down. At their present speed City Index Leopard would expect to arrive in Hobart about an hour and a half too late to break the record, but if the breeze freshens during the day "we could easily gain that hour and a half."

Roger Sturgeon's Farr STP 65 Rosebud is hanging onto fourth as the American boat prepares to enter Bass Strait, narrowly ahead of Matt Allen's Ichi Ban in fifth.

On the all important handicap stakes, Bruce Taylor's brand new IRC 40 one-off Chutzpah was leading the IRC fleet at 0500hrs this morning. Taylor, who has placed second and third overall from the 26 Rolex Sydney Hobarts the Victorian has contested, had an inkling pre-race that they would do well given the forecast.

While the frontrunners charge into Bass Strait, the small to mid sized boats have claimed the top three IRC results as their own, Chutzpah leading Morna, the name of the boat that last took the triple line honours in 1946, 1947 and 1948 but not the same boat. At 0500hrs this morning, Lake Macquarie boat Inner Circle was third on IRC results while Rick Scott-Murphy's ACT boat Namadgi was leading the PHS leaderboard.

The fleet is now spread over 141 nautical miles with Steve Humphries' West Australian S&S 34 Huckleberry the backmarker as they sail south of Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast. - Jim Gale/Lisa Ratcliff

rolexsydneyhobart.com

BOSTIK PUT IN FOR A WEEK IN PORTUGAL
Charles Caudrelier, skipper of Bostik, the first Veolia Oceans one-design specifically designed with the SolOceans 2009 in mind, Liz Wardley, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec during the round-the-world Reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans, between Caen and Wellington, the capital of New-Zealand, will stopover this week-end, at Cascais in Portugal. After breaking a stay at the beginning of the week, this pit stop is imperative before heading back to the South.

Tests under the breeze 1 - November 19th, 2007 The Veolia Oceans one-design has a surprising behaviour with her easiness under the breeze and her capacity to reach very high steady speed.

"The two first days were really great, with days during which sailed 400 Miles in 24 hours and a top speed at more than twenty knots. The Bostik is really nice to sail" declared Charles Caudrelier in a video report made on board. "Liz Wardley did reach the highest speed and hold the record! Then we heard something incredible. The leeward stay broke". Eventually, it is the repeated rubbing of the main sail on the rear wind stay that destroyed the protection of the PBO fibres composing this cable. Without any protection, the stay's core gave in".

"This error of design from our supplier could have had serious consequences", declared Yvan Griboval, CEO of SailingOne and designer of the Veolia Oceans one-design. "Luckily Bostik's crew is very attentive and takes this testing campaign very seriously, otherwise the round-the-world Reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans could have stopped in the Bay of Biscay. The gauge and resistance of the stay are not doubted. When the rig was designed, we increased the capacity of the stay to go under a charging superior to the one we calculated at first, in meeting with Beat Wilderberg (Alucarbon), the maker of the mast. Nothing is to be questioned on the subject".

A new set of stays, with reinforced shaft adapted to the constraint of the Veolia Oceans one-design, has just been made immediately in the United-States. It will be forwarded to France at the beginning of the week, and then fitted out with the ending pieces for the head of mast and hull on Friday 28 December. Bostik will then be able to go back on its course to Wellington during the week-end of the 30th December.

www.soloceans.com

PRESSURE BUILDING FOR AN ISAF REVOTE
A letter from outgoing ISAF president Arve Sundheim to members of ISAF Council suggests there is unlikely to be a reconsideration of the Olympic events vote taken in Estoril back in early November.

Click here to download a pdf of the letter: sailjuiceblog.files.wordpress.com

Sundheim defends the voting procedure and claims that ISAF paid due consideration to the IOC's requirements.

But pressure is building from national authorities to get a revote next May at the ISAF mid-year meeting in Qingdao. Following Yachting Australia's and the Royal Yachting Association's open requests for a revote, Yachting New Zealand is now also looking to do the same, according to a report on Sail World.

Talking of strategy, that is the point that Rod Carr wanted to get across when I spoke to the RYA chief exec earlier today. "We want to see ISAF getting away from 'sticking plaster' politics and taking a more strategic approach to the future of the sport," he said.

"That's why we're doing what we're doing. Even if ISAF said 'match racing is part of our strategy', we might not agree with it but we would at least go along with it, if that was part of a strategy that had been properly thought through."

Carr has had a number of conversations with other national authorities behind the scenes, and is confident that sufficient momentum is building towards a revote next May. Among other nations that are believed to have written to ISAF are Canada, Spain, Austria and Singapore. A few others, like France, have yet to decide whether or not to follow suit.

Meanwhile, the members of the ISAF Athletes Commission are weighing up the possibility of running a questionnaire of all the competitors in the 2008 Olympic class World Championships, most of which are taking place in Australia or New Zealand in the next two months.

If they go ahead with this, it will be interesting to see how Olympic sailors themselves would choose the classes for 2012. We had some indication of that in the SailJuice survey a few weeks ago, although the sample of Olympic sailors was perhaps not sufficient to draw any hard conclusions.

sailjuiceblog.com

COLLINS STEWART LONDON BOAT SHOW
London's largest annual event, the Collins Stewart London Boat Show, will take place at ExCeL - the heart of London's entertainment district - from 11-20 January 2008. Now in its 54th year the Show promises to offer something for all, and will welcome some 140,000 people, encouraging visitors to take to the waters.

Visitors to the Show have a plethora of exciting features to explore and enjoy such as Start Boating, Deck Games, an interactive Watersports Zone, Anchor Watch, Classic Boats and the Guinness Bar. There will also be a chance to climb aboard the HMS Exeter, the very first Royal Naval Destroyer to the Show.

www.londonboatshow.com

GULF STREAM ACTION HEATS UP
US-IRC's 2008 Gulf Stream Series racing starts January 16th with the Ft Lauderdale to Key West Race. Acura Key West 2008 follows right behind and Miami to Nassau is February 9th.

Action begins in the Caribbean with the Regatta Presidente Cup, Casa de Campo Y C February 13-17, the International Rolex Regatta, St Thomas, March 28-30, and the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival March 31 - April 6.

There are a total of 19 races and regattas in the 2008 Gulf Stream Series. If you want to win the Gulf Stream Series trophy then you need to enter the series and get sailing.

Click www.yachtscoring.com/event_registration_email.cfm
Yachts must also enter the individual distance races and regattas.

US-IRC has made qualifying for the Gulf Stream Series easier in 2008. To qualify a yacht must sail in two distance races (Group 1) and five regattas (Group 2). Venues for both of these groups range from where the Gulf Stream rounds South Florida to New England, out to the US and British Virgin Islands to a ride up the stream to Charleston SC and across the stream to Bermuda.

Distance races include enough races in either the south or north to met the qualifications and regattas can be sailed in a comfortable mix. Northern sailors will be able to sail Group 2 events in their own area. However, those who choose to start in the South or the Caribbean will have to follow the Gulf Stream up to either Charleston and Annapolis or to New England to sail the required number of Group 2 events.

www.us-irc.org

I DO NOT HAVE A DEATH WISH
But I am building a boat in my backyard. With tools from Home Depot and used sails. I'm going to sail around the world. Alone. My naval architect quit because he thinks I'll die. I'm not going to die. I'm going to come back and tell the story.

"I remember how I suffered when I was reading your book," my naval architect, Paolo Bisol, wrote to me this summer. He was French but had somehow run across my memoir, A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea, before we met. "I was waiting for the disaster to happen and couldn't stand it. I couldn't believe somebody had actually gone through all that, and kept going. Now I have a similar feeling, only I don't know the ending and I have responsibility in it."

Bisol was pulling out of my project to build a fifty-foot trimaran for a nonstop solo circumnavigation. "This is literally giving me nightmares," he wrote. "I'm freaking out. I am so stressed that I cannot think of anything else."

My project has extreme constraints: I'm trying to spend only $25,000 for a boat that will sail nonstop around the world, covering twenty-five thousand miles in four months. It will have to sail fast in light air in the equatorial regions and also survive fifty-foot seas and hundred-knot winds in the terrifying Southern Ocean as I sail around Antarctica. And I'm building the boat myself, quickly, in a month or two, so it's flat bottomed, with straight sides, and as skinny and light and simple as possible.

Paolo Bisol is a good guy with a conscience, and he had been pushed past his limits. I certainly understood and could sympathize, but now it was July 15, 2007. I was planning to start my circumnavigation in December, which meant I needed a new naval architect. -- David Vann

See the boat project at www.esquire.com/tincan and www.davidvann.com

JOYON SUFFERS BRUNT OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN
IDEC and Francis Joyon, sailing close to the center of a vast low pressure system, suffers the brunt of the fury of the Pacific Ocean.

The skipper solitary provided yesterday in a brief telephone conversation, having come out of the heart of the depression, within 24 hours, in a sea 'and dangerous crossroads, with height of 6 to 7 feet.'

He continues to rack-up days of more than 430 miles, heading to the south east with an excellent VMG (Velocity made Good), under three reefs and staysail.

For the record, IDEC has already traveled more than 16,300 miles in actual distance at over 21 knots average. At 8,267 miles from the finish, IDEC-Joyon is still more than 3030 miles ahead of the record of Ellen MacArthur.

www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=40254

SPACE STILL AVAILABLE FOR US SAILING SAFETY AT SEA COURSE
The Cruising World/US Sailing Safety at Sea Seminar offered by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club would make a great gift for the sailor or power boater on your list.

And there is a great vacation package available to make the trip special for sailors and non-sailors alike. Skippers and crew of all vessels that venture offshore are invited. The Safety at Sea Seminar is scheduled in Bermuda for February 2nd & 3rd. Space is still available for the first day, and sailors who attend that will receive the US Sailing course certificate now required for many offshore events starting from the USA.

The full two-day course provides certification of attendance at an International Sailing Federation (ISAF) approved personal survival course required for world wide racing events. The second day was limited to 20 participants and is now sold out. An additional hands-on day will be added on Monday February 4th if there are sufficient requests. Islanders may register quickly by downloading the form and returning the completed form and payment directly to the RBYC.

See www.ussailing.org/safety/Seminars/index_new.asp

ISAF WORLD SAILING RANKINGS
There is just one change amongst the leaders and Spain move clear at the top of the national standings in this year's final release of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings.

Mexico's Tania Elias Calles moves to the top of the Laser Radial Rankings after an impressive performance in at the ISAF Grade 1 Sydney International Regatta in Australia. Calles is the first Mexican to hold the world #1 spot, and next year will be aiming to become the first-ever Mexican to win an Olympic medal in the sailing events.

Across the other ten Olympic events the leaders hold on to their world #1 spots, so Australia retain their three Ranking leaders. However it is Spain who top the national standings. Marina Alabau (ESP) in the Women's RS:X maybe the only Spanish leader, but they also hold two second places (in the Tornado and 49er) and one third (in the Men's RS:X). Behind the Spanish, as well as Australia, Poland, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands all hold three top-three places, whilst the USA and France both have two. However, with a flurry of World Championship titles early next year, the national battle is still wide open before the Olympic Games get underway in Qingdao, China next August. It promises to be a fascinating 2008 in the Olympic Classes…

The next release of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings will next be on 6 February 2008, including results from the 49er World Championship, RS:X World Championship, Finn Gold Cup, 470 World Championships and the Rolex Miami OCR.

sailing.org

YACHTS ARE NEWEST STATUS SYMBOL OF CHINA'S ULTRA-RICH
For boat manufacturers, the yachting market of the future is China, where luxury sailing yachts and motorboats are becoming the ultimate accessory of the super-rich. New marinas are being developed, and the government is promoting sailing ahead of next year's Olympics.

It is a beautiful, sunny day at Hong Kong's International Boat Show, held at one of the city's many marinas. Boat lovers from around the region take off their shoes and step carefully onto the stunning - and very expensive - luxury yachts being displayed by leading international manufacturers.

Some of the potential customers are from mainland China, such as this man from Shenzhen, who made his fortune in the chemical industry.

He says he bought a sailing boat last year, and now he wants to buy a motor yacht, too.

China's market for pleasure boats is still in the infancy stage. Just 400 private boats are registered nationwide, and almost all of them are motorboats. But Adrien Magnan of Marine Dragon Consulting in Shanghai, which specializes in the Chinese yachting industry, says the amount spent on luxury boats has been leaping upwards by tens-of-millions of dollars in the past few years.

"If you look at the increase, it's about 100 percent every year," he explained. "So 2005 was about $30 million (dollars), 2006 was about $50 million U.S. (dollars), now we are exceeding $100 million in imports of yachts. And so, if next year it will be $200 or $400 (million) - in a few years it will catch up with countries like Italy or France in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised to see China in the top five markets in less than five years."

Shanghai's International Boat Show has already become one of Asia's largest. Smaller marine fairs are held in Qingdao and Dalian in Northeastern China and in Shenzhen and Zhuhai in the South. -- Claudia Blume, her full story at www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-25-voa18.cfm

FEATURED BROKERAGE
1984 Multiplast, 180,600 GBP, Lying England

73' 6" LOA, 37' 5" beam. Designed by Gilles Ollier.

Brokerage through YachtsAndCruisers.com: www.yachtsandcruisers.com

Complete listing details and seller contact information at www.yachtsandcruisers.com/full-spec/Multiplast/26990/

THE LAST WORD
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. -- Charles Dickens

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 Artemis 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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