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FAMILIAR FACES AND HOT NEWCOMERS
As the results rolled in during the first day of racing Acura Key West 2008, presented by Nautica there were a lot of familiar names finishing at the front.

Winners in the Melges 24 class included such perennial contenders as Franco Rossini and Riccardo Simoneschi. By day's end, Masquerade was in her usual perch atop the J/105 class. Two-time defending world champion and past Key West winner Mascalzone Latino seized the early lead in Farr 40. Dan Meyers, who has raced a variety of big boats in Key West, showed off his new Numbers while moving quickly to the top of IRC 1. Other opening day pacesetters with a history of success at Acura Key West include the J/80 Rumor and the Mumm 30 Groovederci.

However, there were also some newcomers atop the leader board after Day 1. No Naked Flames, a brand new Sllim 37 owned by Irish brothers Andrew and Carl Allen, performed well right of the box in taking the lead in IRC 2. Stark Raving Mad, James Madden's new J/125, also posted superb results while showing it could be the boat to beat in PHRF 1. Meanwhile, the Swan 42 class made its one-design debut at Acura Key West with Tiburon, owned by Mark Watson of Newport, R.I.

Action at Acura Key West 2008 was scheduled to begin on Monday, but high winds and heavy seas forced regatta organizers to abandon on all four courses without starting a race. Winds were still strong, but more manageable, on Tuesday - blowing steady between 17-20 knots out of the east. That enabled officials with Premiere Racing to complete three races for 15 of 16 classes - the first time that has happened in the 21-year history of the popular regatta. -- Jeanne Kleene

* Farr 40 Class:
The usual suspects were to be found near the front of the fleet and after three races, it came as little surprise that Vincenzo Onorato's Mascalzone Latino topped the overall points score. The Italian's consistency with two second places and a third gave him a three point advantage over Peter de Ridder's Mean Machine, which had the same points as Jim Richardson's Barking Mad. Nevertheless, the first race provided a major surprise. Everyone was eager to start, the line was biased towards the pin end, and that resulted in a welter of individual recalls and those who had aimed for the pin being baulked somewhat. World Champion, Vincenzo Onorato in Mascalzone Latino was among the latter, although the Italian was able to shrug off the opposition and head rapidly into clear wind. But out of the middle of the line John Demourkas drove Groovederci to the front to lead Mascalzone Latino by 100 yards.

Demourkas stretched his lead slightly on the next two legs and was 20 seconds clear to start the run for home. It was enough and he scored the first win of the week from Mascalzone Latino and Barking Mad with Mean Machine fourth.

The breeze was up to 18 knots for the second race and from a perfect line the Farr 40s responded with a clean start. Vincenzo Onorato nailed the pin, but a right hand shift lifted Barking Mad and Mean Machine in front by the first mark. Then came Helmut Jahn with Flash Gordon, Massimo Mezzaroma in Nerone and SLED. Bertarelli was ninth with Alinghi. As the race developed, Mean Machine began to edge away to finish ahead of Mascalzone Latino and Barking Mad. These three then occupied the first three places on points as Groovederci had a bad race.

The breeze had fallen to just ten knots for the start of the third race and this time it was the turn of Barnaba's Fiamma to lead away from the pin end. He lost the lead towards the end of the first beat when a left hand shift favoured Mean Machine and Nerone, but the three boats were overlapped as they rounded the first mark.

As the race developed, places swapped with rapid frequency and by the finish it was Fiamma that crossed the line to win the race from Nerone and the highly consistent Mascalzone Latino with Barking Mad fourth and Mean Machine fifth. -- Bob Fisher

Results:
1. Mascalzone Latino Vincenzo Onorato (ITA), 7 points
2. Mean Machine Peter de Ridder (MON), 10
3. Barking Mad James Richardson (USA), 10
4. Nerone Massimo Mezzaroma (ITA), 16
5. Twins Erik Maris (FRA), 19
6. Goombay Smash William Douglass (USA), 24

www.Premiere-Racing.com

JULES VERNE TROPHY: DEPARTURE IMMINENT
After a month and a half's wait at its base in Lorient, Groupama 3 is due to set off on its Jules Verne Trophy attempt from the Creac'h lighthouse off Ushant, late morning on Thursday 24th January. The programme for Franck Cammas and his nine crew: to reach the equator in six days and complete a circumnavigation in less than fifty days...

This Thursday, a zone of rain will sweep across the Breton coast early in the day. These showers will be associated with a good 25-30 knot NW'ly breeze, quickly backing to the North in the Bay of Biscay. Twelve hours later, at the approach to Cape Finisterre, there should be thirty knots of NE'ly winds, set to drop to around twenty knots of E'ly off Lisbon. As a result, this sequence of weather is very favourable, not just in terms of angle in relation to the wind since Groupama 3 is extremely fast with the wind on the beam (over 30 knots average speed), but above all due to the very manageable sea state (offshore breeze off Portugal). The only blip on the horizon to date: the passage of the Canaries, as a low out at sea is disrupting the classic tradewind pattern. Groupama 3's pace could be slowed for half a day at this stage of the course, but it should then pick up nicely before the Cape Verde islands, with E'ly breezes practically all the way to the Doldrums...

Sylvain Mondon of Meteo France:
"The start configuration is good, with a front crossing the Bay of Biscay, pushed by a zone of high pressure in the Atlantic, which is shifting eastwards. As a result, early morning on Thursday 24th January, there will be a brutal wind rotation to the NW off Brittany. The passage of the front over the island of Ushant should determine the hour of their departure; forecasts this lunchtime showing a window between 0500 and 1700 GMT. In fact, the Azores High isn't in its usual position and there is a stormy low off the Canaries, which is in the process of filling in. This phenomenon is causing a disturbance in the NE'ly tradewinds along the coast of Mauritania, which is disrupting the breeze between the Canaries and Cape Verde. There is a degree of uncertainty about this stage of the course then, but it is likely that the deterioration of this stormy low will enable the trades to rapidly return to their usual pattern: it should take six days to reach the equator..."

"Jules Verne" crew on Groupama 3
Watch leader - helm: Franck Cammas (Skipper), Franck Proffit, Steve Ravussin
Second helm: Frederic Le Peutrec / Loic Le Mignon / Sebastien Audigane
No.1: Ronan Le Goff / Jan Dekker / Jacques Caraes
Navigator: Yves Parlier
Onshore weather expert: Sylvain Mondon (Meteo France)

Key Figures
Record 5 - Jules Verne Trophy
21,760 miles, from the start of a line, which is virtually defined between the island of Ushant and Lizard Point lighthouse (UK). Crewed circumnavigation leaving the Capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn to port.
Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds - Average speed: 17.89 knots
Record held by Bruno Peyron, aboard the maxi-catamaran Orange 2, since March 2005.

THE ROUTE DE L'OR
On day five of its attempt to break the record from New York to San Francisco, Gitana 13 is now approaching the Doldrums. The boat speed, while kept above 20 knots on average, has considerably slowed onboard the maxi-catamaran owned by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild. This serves as confirmation that Lionel Lemonchois and his crew of nine are currently nearing the Intertropical Convergence Zone.

Leopold Lucet (No. 1/medical) confirms the situation: "The wind has eased a bit, allowing us to put up more sail. We'll soon be entering the Doldrums." For Leopold, Fred Le Maistre and David Boileau, this will be their first visit to this famous equatorial zone. Several days later they will celebrate their first equator crossing.

With nearly 10,000 miles to go, Lionel Lemonchois's motto hasn't changed: "don't push the boat too hard, make it go forward while keeping a good margin of safety, because we still have a long way to go before we reach San Francisco!"

www.gitana-team.com

A THIRD WAY
On 9th January this year TEAMORIGIN, with the Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC), lodged a Deed of Gift (DOG) Challenge with the Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG). It called for a Match in 2011 in Valencia to be sailed in AC90 yachts and it outlined their willingness to consider a mutual consent match with a protocol along similar lines to the one signed in July last year.

The RTYC's most recent challenge was lodged in anticipation of a potential vacuum occurring should the currently disputed Golden Gate Yacht Club's (GGYC) DOG Challenge be found lacking by the New York Supreme Court's Judge Cahn. SNG's motion to reargue and renew points about the validity of GGYC's DOG Challenge, part of the legal dispute that has dogged the America's Cup since July 2007, was due to be heard on 14th January of this year, along with argument on settling the order arising from the judgment of 27th November. On 14th January however Judge Cahn further postponed the hearing to Wednesday 23rd January.

The delay in Judge Cahn's deliberations last week has opened up a second potential benefit from the RTYC's new challenge. It could now also help secure a new trial protocol with the Swiss Defender that is sufficiently satisfactory to the GGYC for the American club to be sufficiently comfortable to drop its challenge, making way for the RTYC to become the Challenger of Record. This should result in the avoidance of the inevitable appeals threatened by both sides should they lose in the current litigation. It should also negate the need for a DOG Match some time this year or next, with the serious complications that the potential of such an event is starting to bring to light.

By following the lead proposed by TEAMORIGIN and the RTYC the GGYC and the SNG have a real opportunity to reach a successful conclusion to the current situation, stop building yachts for a DOG Match, avoid further litigation and allow stability to return to the world of the America's Cup - something that would benefit all prospective challengers and the sport as a whole.

To ignore this opportunity would result in further untold damage and could lead to a potentially hollow victory, completely debasing the value of the America's Cup as the pinnacle of the sport of sailing and stunting its ability to further develop in the future.

"We believe that a real window of opportunity exists to end this situation positively and quickly. And so we call on the GGYC and the SNG to take this new opportunity seriously and work with us on a new protocol for an America's Cup in 2011 in the exciting new AC90 class," concluded Sir Keith.

www.teamorigin.com

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www.duboisyachts.com

FINN GOLD CUP: ALL EYES ON BEN AINSLIE
Ben Ainslie has already made history in the Finn class, and starting today in Melbourne, he can not only embellish his record in the Finn Gold Cup but also erode a little bit of the confidence of the rivals he will face in China at the Olympics in August.

The Gold Cup will put 74 Finns on the start line in a 30-country fleet, and Ainslie says: "Winning would be good, but the focus is all on China. But yes, it would be nice to make a bit of a psychological point over the other guys."

Britain's triple Olympic medallist has won more Gold Cup world championships than any other person in the second-oldest Olympic class. He took the gold medal in Athens in 2004 straight after switching from the lighter Laser singlehander to the Finn and reeled off four straight Gold Cup victories from 2002-2005. Since then he has maintained a looming presence in the class despite being absent except for two regattas - the Olympic test events in Qingdao - while he skippered Team New Zealand's America's Cup B-boat.

Ainslie has been in Australia for two and half months, the selection trial against Ed Wright effectively ending in December at the Sydney International regatta. But he is still rusty.

He says: "It's been a couple of years since I've raced in fleets of 60 boats rather than 30 boats. That's why the Sail Melbourne warm-up regatta was good for sharpening up my timing and positioning." -- Tim Jeffery, www.telegraph.co.uk/jeffery

* The third and last day of measurement led by International Finn measurer Juri Saraskin and Andre Blase was concluded by a practice race attended by a few sailors while most added the last touches to their boat.

Many sailors have enjoyed the summer season to train in Australia over the last 2 months; however other sailors had to postpone their training and preparation in Melbourne while gathering funding for their campaign. Class newcomer, Johnny Bilbao from Venezuela made it just in time...but without his luggage and sails lost in transit, somewhere between Carracas, Miami, LA and Melbourne! Finn sailors proved once again they haven't lost their sense of friendship, Czech Michael Maier lent a sail while Australian measurer and OK dinghy sailor Andre Blase brought his bag of sailing gear. Last but not least, Jake Gunther Finn and Etchell sailor had generously lent his boat and mast to Johnny who will be able to start in the regatta with the objective to qualify his country for the Olympics. The Venezuelan is a new recipient on the Finn development programme (FIDeS) which also include Indian sailors Nachhatar Johal and Nitin Mongia.

As usual the British team is well represented. While Ben Ainslie and Ed Wright are among the favorites for the Finn Gold Cup, Giles Scott is tipped to win the Silver Cup from Junior World Champion: Jan Kurfeld, Germany. Only 8 Junior's will compete for the Silver Cup after last years fleet of 50 boats in Moscow.

The Finn Gold Cup will be the first selection regatta for the 5 Chinese sailors in contention for their Olympic berth in Qingdao. After the Gold Cup, the Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hyeres and a series of regattas in China will conclude the selection process.

www.sailmelbourne.com.au/event/finngoldcup2008

LINE HONOURS FOR AGMC BMW
After a challenging four days taking advantage of the currents and the little puffs of sea breeze AGMC BMW took line honours of the 16th Dubai Muscat Offshore Sailing Race. UAE National Yousef Bin Lahej and French Sailor Christophe Vanek skippered the yacht alongside an international crew from the UAE, UK and France. They crossed the finish line off Marina Bander Al Rowhda, Muscat at 0601 on Tuesday 22nd.

From the start, off the shores of Dubai Offshore Sailing Club on Friday 18th January, the 14 yachts faced a hard 90-mile beat into 20 knots of wind, up the UAE coast to the Mussandam Peninsula. A gruelling 24 hours for the competitors that later led to a number of retirements. The lead boats found the tidal rips in the straits daunting with standing waves of up to 1.5 metres. Once round the corner the winds eased and then died turning the event into a drifting match.

With the two largest leading boats retiring from the race due to unforeseen circumstances the competition was on for the prestigious title of line honours. AGMC BMW and the 2 Royal Navy of Oman yachts were battling for the title.

The lead boat took a course well off the UAE and Omani coast, which allowed them to gain advantage from the favourable the Indian Ocean currents. Inshore the winds may have been more favourable but the adverse currents would have been a disadvantage.

With 30 hours of very little movement all the remaining boats had to play a tough game of utilising the natural weather systems of Oman. AGMC BMW may have taken the line honours title but overall winner is still up for grabs. Each racing yacht has a specific handicap which calculates their final time dependant on the number of hours raced in relation to the make and age of boat.

Wednesday morning may bring a different result with Al Bashiq and Al Aquab, Royal Navy of Oman competitors and Dubai based Wanderlust still to finish.

www.dubaimuscat.org.ae

HARDY CUP 2008
Torvar Mirsky, the highest ranking youth match racing sailor in the world, heads an international line-up for the Hardy Cup 2008 to be conducted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron from 10-14 February.

The ISAF Grade 3 match racing regatta is the major youth match racing event held on Sydney Harbour each year, the concept of former America's Cup skipper, world champion and Olympic Sir James Hardy.

Mirsky, from Royal Perth Yacht Club, has twice previously contested the Hardy Cup, placing seventh overall in 2006 to the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron's Michael Dunstan and fourth in 2007 to Adam Minoprio from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

The young West Australian recently returned from the European circuit where his results lifted him up the ISAF rankings, ahead of mentor Peter Gilmour. With an ISAF ranking of 11, Mirsky will defend his Warren Jones Regatta match racing title in Perth next week.

Defending the Hardy Cup this year is New Zealander Adam Minoprio who has continued his international match racing experience over the past year, successfully defending his Asia match racing title and receiving an entry for the second time to the 2007 Monsoon Cup, the world circuit event in Malaysia.

He also finished second in the Knickerbocker Cup in the USA and has a current ISAF ranking of 34.

Two women skippers will compete in the Hardy Cup 2008, Nicky Souter and Nina Curtis, both from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Nicky has an current ISAF women's ranking of 12. -- Peter Campbell

www.rsys.com.au/sailing/HardyCup2008.php

RATIFIED
The WSSR Council announces the ratification of a new World Record:

Record: Around the World Singlehanded
Yacht: "IDEC" 98 ft Trimaran
Name: Francis Joyon, FRA.
Dates: 23rd November 2007 to 19th January 2008.
Start time: 10h 05m 52s; 23/11/07
Finish time: 23h 39m 58s; 19/01/08
Elapsed time: 57 days 13 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds
Average speed: 15.84 knots

Previous record: Ellen MacArthur, GBR, "B&Q", Nov 04, 71d 14h 18m 33s

John Reed
Secretary to the WSSR Council

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THE LAST WORD
God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road. -- Isak Dinesen

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