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HISTORIC HAT-TRICK FOR SIR ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSTON
Clipper Ventures Chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston CBE, today cemented his reputation as one of the most iconic sailors in history when he was awarded the Raymarine / YJA Yachtsman of the Year Award 2008. Following his inspiring exploits in last year's VELUX 5 OCEANS, a single-handed around the world race, he made history yet again as he claimed the title of UK Yachtsman of the Year for an unprecedented third time.

Sir Robin first won the accolade in 1969 in recognition of his achievement in becoming the first man to sail solo and non-stop around the world in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. In 1994 he was awarded the title for a second time with Peter Blake for the fastest circumnavigation to win the Jules Verne Trophy.

The award, which is elected by a ballot of members of the Yachting Journalists' Association following nominations received from members of the boating public, reflects the huge popularity of the legendary mariner after he finished the gruelling 30,000 miles of the VELUX 5 OCEANS 2006-07. Sir Robin entered the classic yacht race onboard his IMOCA Open 60 SAGA INSURANCE, and inspired people around the world by taking on and completing 'The Ultimate Solo Challenge' in his sixties, celebrating his 68th birthday whilst at sea alone.

CRUISING CLUB AWARDS
* British sailor and ocean racer Mike Golding was selected by the Cruising Club of America to receive its 2007 Rod Stephens Trophy for Outstanding Seamanship for his heroic rescue of Alex Thomson in the Southern Ocean during the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans Race. The trophy will be presented at the club's annual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan on January 15, 2008. This is a perpetual trophy made possible by shipmates and friends of the late Rod Stephens to recognize "an act of seamanship which significantly contributes to the safety of a yacht or one or more individuals at sea." Making the presentation of the award to Maureen Davis of ECOVER, Inc. on behalf of Mike Golding was CCA Commodore Ross Sherbrooke of Boston, Mass.

"I am delighted to accept this prestigious reward," said Mike Golding upon receiving the news of his selection. "The rescue of Alex Thomson from Hugo Boss was an incredible experience for both of us and something that I would like to think anyone in the same position would have done. Alex and I were located deep in the Southern Ocean competing on the Velux 5 Oceans Race solo around the world race, but when you take up the gauntlet of this type of racing we know the risks involved. We also know that we are each others best chance of rescue in such hostile regions. Whilst we are competing in a serious and professional yacht race, in such situations all competitive considerations have to be put aside in favor of straightforward human concern for our fellow sailor's wellbeing."

* Peter M. Passano of Woolwich, Maine was selected by the Cruising Club of America to receive its prestigious Blue Water Medal for 2007. The medal will be presented by CCA Commodore Ross E. Sherbrooke of Boston, Mass. at the club's annual Awards Dinner in New York on January 15, 2008.

The Blue Water medal was inaugurated by the Cruising Club of America in 1923 to "reward meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities that might otherwise go unrecognized." Previous Blue Water Medalists have included such luminaries of the world of ocean voyaging in small vessels as Alain Gerbault, H.W. Tilman, Carleton Mitchell, Eric and Susan Hiscock, Sir Francis Chichester, Eric Tabarly, Bernard Moitessier and Minoru Saito.

Peter Passano is the skipper of his 39-foot, home-built steel cutter Sea Bear, which during the past 17 years has taken him on ocean voyages spanning the length and breadth of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Taken together with his previous boats, he has sailed over 125,000 nautical miles.

www.cruisingclub.org

POSITIONS TO BE COVERED AT VALENCIA
Due to the constant growth in the work volume King Composite, the spar manufacturer of largest growth in the last years is seeking for personnel to cover two new work positions at the office in Valencia:

Service responsible: the candidates for this position must have a background of experience in boatbuilding, composite work, knowledge of rigging, commissioning and tuning rigs. Fluent English is mandatory, knowledge of Spanish is preferable. Available to travel frequently, proactive personality, capable of solving situations under tight time schemes.

Sales department: candidates must have a background in sailing, some technical knowledge on the parts and functioning of a rig. Good use of most common administrative computer programs Fluent English, and Spanish.

Those interested please send CV and references to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.kingcomposite.com

THE RUSSIAN CHALLENGE
St Petersburg businessman Oleg Zherebtsov liked the Volvo Ocean Race so much he bought his own boat and intends to sail on it. This despite never having contested a serious offshore race before this year's Fastnet.

Zherebtsov, the founder of the Russian hypermarket chain Lenta, is bankrolling the Russian Challenge campaign and will be a fully paid up member of the crew, warts and all.

Thirty-nine-year-old Zherebtsov stepped on a yacht for the first time in his life two years ago. In business and in life it is fair to say he likes a challenge. "I like adventure and I love sailing," he says. As for free-dried food, sleep deprivation, mountainous seas and close shaves with icebergs, time will tell.

Russian Challenge was launched in February this year. Andreas Hanakamp, the Austrian former Olympic sailor, will skipper the boat while Michael Woods, the director of operations for the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race, is managing the team.

The design team is led by Britain's Rob Humphreys while Green Marine of Lymington on the south-coast of England are overseeing the build.

Woods provides a glowing progress report but gives no clues on design. "We have just started putting carbon in the hull and building the deck so we are well on track," he says.

"We expect the boat to be out of the shed in early to mid-April and be sailing by late April.

"We are slowly putting the crew together but in reality the timeline for having people in place and actually naming and confirming them is probably the middle of the spring.

"Apart from Oleg, the intention is to include some other Russians in the crew. In terms of how many, it's more a question of finding the right people, whether they be Russians or not, with the right talent to sail the boat."

www.volvooceanrace.org

A LITTLE RESPITE FOR FRANCIS JOYON
While the start of the night was characterised once again by some tough sailing, with some unexpected squalls popping up, creating 35 knots of variable winds to shake up the large IDEC trimaran and her single-handed skipper, the night was to end with the long-awaited calmer conditions for Francis Joyon. By veering more easterly, the trade wind blowing to the south of the Azores eased off significantly and became much steadier, making it easier for the red multihull to make her way north. With the wind on the beam, resting on her port float, IDEC was sailing along at first light at 16-18 knots on seas that were still quite nasty. Although with a touch of tiredness, Francis's voice also expressed a little relief. While the threat of seeing his shroud break away from the mast remains present, what lies ahead for the solo yachtsman after 53 days of uninterrupted struggle, seems much clearer, with a route strategy very much in line with what! is considered normal in the North Atlantic. He has to round the high, then it will be full speed ahead in the SW'ly flow sweeping right across the NW corner of France today....

With the change in wind direction, Francis is waiting in particular for the swell to improve. When the sea calms down, he will be able to make his fourth climb back up the mast. A crucial moment in this round the world voyage, as it will enable Francis to work out just how much he can get out of his machine before the finish.

If reassured by the condition of his mast, Francis Joyon will be able to look forward more serenely to the final days of sailing that lie ahead. The weather pattern is in his own words favourable, and he just needs to avoid hanging around on the way; "With the westerly winds, we can hope to finish on 20th or 21st January. We must not dawdle, as after the 21st, there are calms and upwind conditions expected in the Bay of Biscay. I want to make the most of the weekend's south-westerlies to reach Brittany."

www.trimaran-idec.com

* If it all works out as planned his time round the world will be an incredible 60 days. That's 11 days faster than Ellen MacArthur.

The margin is impressive enough, but I think the statistic that really puts this feat in its proper perspective is a comparison with flat-out, fully crewed round the world records. It was only five years ago that Bruno Peyron and 12 crew stunned the yachting community by scything the round the world record back to 64 days in the 110ft catamaran Orange.

Peyron's homecoming was also in Brest and when I interviewed him shortly afterwards he was already planning Orange 2 and predicting a record of under 60 days and the first 750-mile day. "If you can build lighter and stronger then same sail area will go faster," he said, quite logically.

But Peyron was thinking exclusively of what a large and expert crew could do and I'm quite sure he never imagined that only a few years later a solo sailor could push the record well below the time he'd set, let alone in a smaller yacht. Francis Joyon is about to and that, to me, is the scale of his achievement. -- Elaine Bunting in her blog: www.ybw.com/yw/blog/elaine_bunting.html

470 CLASS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Melbourne, Austrlia: After almost four years campaigning in the XXIX Olympiad, sailing athletes will measure strength at their last World Championships prior to the Olympic Sailing Regatta, taking place next Summer at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The World Championships in the International 470 class, the class representing the "two person dinghy" for both men and women at the Olympic Sailing Regatta, will take place from 21 to 30 January on Port Phillip Bay near Melbourne in Australia.

Reigning World Champions Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE from Australia (470 Men) and Marcelien DE KONING and Lobke BERKHOUT from the Netherlands (470 Women) will have a tough job defending their Worlds title and fight, to claim the Worlds title to their names for the fourth time.

470 World Championships have taken place on different continents the last three years, (USA 2005, China 2006, Portugal 2007), and now the action is brought to Australia, with 153 entries from an impressive number of 38 representing nations.

Besides the challenge for the Worlds title, this event will decide on the remaining 25% of country qualifications for the Olympic Sailing Regatta. 29 crews will start at the Olympic Sailing Regatta in the men's two person dinghy, and 19 in the women's.

At the ISAF Sailing World Championships last year in Cascais, Portugal, 22 countries have already qualified in the 470 Men and 14 in the 470 Women.

A hot competition for the Olympic dream, meaning for the 7 remaining places in the men's 470, will establish between 15 nations that have not qualified. In the women's 470 it will be even harder, where 17 nations will compete for only 5 remaining places.

www.sailmelbourne.com.au
www.470.org

CHINA OCEANIC AUTHORITY: WATER QUALITY IN QINGDAO UP TO STANDARD
Water quality in Qingdao will meet the standard for the Olympic sailing event, a report issued by China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said on Tuesday.

At the Olympic sailing venue in eastern Shandong Province, the water quality was excellent for about 30 percent of the days monitored in August and fairly good for the rest, the report said.

The bacteria rate in the water was also below the national and international level, it added.

The 2008 Olympic Games will open on Aug. 8 and run to Aug. 24.

Six "red tides", or algal blooms, were monitored in the coastal areas of Qingdao from 2004 to 2007. Only one, however, happened in August and it was non-toxic, the report said.

Qingdao's light wind conditions had raised concern among athletes, but organizers said at a press conference last week that the coastal city was absolutely capable of providing adequate racing conditions.

Qingdao Vice Mayor Zang Aimin said that judging from the last two years' "Good Luck" sport events and the meteorologic data for the past 30 years, the city's wind conditions could meet the standards to hold Olympic sailing competitions.

"Though the city's wind conditions are far from perfect, we are confident that the Olympic sailing events can proceed without a hitch," she said.*

en.beijing2008.cn/news/dynamics/headlines/n214233020.shtml

* Editor... this just in... pigs can fly.

INDUSTRY NEWS
* ACCBank today announced its sponsorship of Cork Week, Ireland's largest International Sailing Regatta, hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club. The event is run every two years and the 2008 ACCBank Cork Week will take place from 12-18 July.

The new agreement was announced earlier today, Tuesday 15 January, at the London Boat Show. Well known faces from the sailing community in Cork were present at the announcement, including Hugh Mockler, Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, and Mike McCarthy, Vice Admiral. -- www.corkweek.ie

* The 54th London Boat Show got off to a good start over the weekend as the show was officially launched by actor, writer and self-professed boat lover Griff Rhys Jones, aided and abetted by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

The show looks very good and is a creditable advance on last year's show. The stage show is generally thought to be excellent entertainment and a real crowd-puller. There is a hole where Challenger Syndicateships was due to be, but filling space at that stage of the game was always going to be difficult.

The attendance figures over the weekend show Friday down on last year by 29%, although the figures may have been affected by last year being an early start when people were still on holiday. The advance ticket sales for that day were also 10% down, but up overall.

Saturday saw 16,000+, an attendance up by 4%, while Sunday saw the attendance rise by another 19%. Overall, said a National Boat Shows (NBS) spokesman, we're about the same as last year's figures, despite the low Friday attendance.' Advance ticket sales for the rest of the show are running 14% up on last year. -- Boating Business, www.boatingbusiness.com/archive/2008/february/news/london_boat_show_off_to_a_promising_start

* French boatmaker the Beneteau Group has published its sales for the first quarter of the financial year 2007-08, which ended November 30, 2007.

The group's consolidated boat sales for the period totalled 117,281,000 Euros, compared to 108,965,000 for the same period of the financial year 2006-2007.

Beneteau's total sales for the period, including sales from their mobile homes division, amounted to 165,915,000, a rise on 132,516,000 for the same period the previous year.

First quarter sales growth for the company is reported as 25.20 per cent. Boat sales, the group's main business, are up 7.6 per cent, or 8.9 per cent on a constant exchange rate basis.

www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080009092746ibinews.html

* Tom Maynard, Yacht Broker has joined Sparkman & Stephens and will head the Newport, Rhode Island, USA Office.

Tom brings over 30 years experience in the marine industry to his new position with S&S. Tom will be managing our new office in Newport, Rhode Island located on lower Thames Street along the Newport waterfront. The office celebrated it's opening with a cocktail reception just recently. Tom's boating experience ranges from being a member of his nationally ranked college sailing team to custom boat building. He gained practical experience building and outfitting custom aluminum yachts at the Minneford Yacht Yard of City Island, New York including work on the S&S designed 12-meter Freedom, sailmaking at UK Sailmakers and held a New Hampshire commercial pilots licence for power yachts. Tom has over 30,000 miles of offshore experience including a Trans-Atlantic trip to Bergen, Norway, nine Newport-Bermuda races, four as watch captain. -- sparkmanstephens.com

* The Hall Spars factory in Breskens, Holland, is bursting at the seams. It's been only five years since its construction, but a combination of increased demand for Hall products and the ever-increasing length of superyacht masts has the Holland team working in tight quarters.

The planned addition will increase the floor space by 3000m2, more than doubling the current 2500m2. The working space of the carbon shop will be lengthened to 63 meters and a new, 60-meter paint booth will be installed.

The building plans have been drawn and ground breaking is scheduled for early next year. The addition should be completed in the fall of 2008. -- www.hallspars.com

* London based Hylas Yachts Ltd has appointed Formula Yacht Spars as its exclusive European mast supplier for its range of semi - custom luxury ocean cruising yachts. The two companies have worked closely together on the development of the new German Frers designed Hylas 51, which will be officially announced at the Collins Stewart London Boat Show.

Formula Yacht Spars is one of the world's leading mast builders with facilities in UK, Holland and France. Hylas Ltd is the European distributor for the Taiwan built Hylas range. Hylas has developed over the last 30 years a range from 46 feet to its 66 foot flagship, with the new 51 being the latest addition. -- formulaspars.com

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 Ted Jones Re: Gordon Ingate, 82, Oldest Australian Yachting Champion. I've had no interaction with Gordon Ingate since the 1977 America's Cup when he sailed a previous generation 12-Meter (Gretel II) with distinction and determination, but I remember him well. To laud Gordon as a fierce competitor is only part of the story. He is also one of the finest gentlemen of our sport, gracious in defeat as well as in triumph. After Gretel II was eliminated from the competition, Gordon invited the press corps for a sail so we could see first hand what is was like to sail a Twelve. To my knowledge, no one has done that before or since. He had to drag me "kicking and screaming" from the helm so others could have a chance to steer. A credit to his country, a credit to our sport, and a throwback to a time when it truly mattered more how you played the game than whether you won or lost. There could not be a more deserving winner of Australia's Dragon Championship. Goodonya Gordon!

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THE LAST WORD
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