Olympic pollution protest10 Aug 2015Rio de Janiero with the cesspit that is Guanabara Bay in the backgroundFLOTILLA: A week before trial events and a year before the Río Olympics a 12km protest cruise has taken place to draw attention to the pollution still present in Guanabara Bay, the venue for the sailing regatta writes Stuart Fisher.Brazil’s Olympic medallist Isabel Swan worked with the Baia Viva movement to plan the protest, which drew a flotilla of over 30 boats from sailing craft to outrigger canoes and sea kayaks, accompanied by the boats of local fishermen who are also affected by the pollution.Industrial effluent and, particularly, sewage are the main problems and have resulted in many dead fish floating in the bay. Two thirds of sewage is untreated.The authorities promised to build eight water treatment plants, but only one of these has been constructed so far.They have admitted their target of removing 80% of the pollution from the bay will not be achieved, threatening the health of those competing.The Beijing course suffered from algal blooms, but these were cleared in the final weeks before the 2008 regatta. Weymouth had no such problems.Calls from many in the sailing world to move the watersports venues have been rejected by the authorities, who want all of the events to be within the city.

via Boating Business – Olympic pollution protest.

Marlow Ropes Award for Cornish

Finn sailor Cornish awarded Marlow Ropes for a year

Ben Cornish is the latest member of the British Sailing Team to be awarded the Marlow Ropes Award following his ninth place at the Finn European Championship (8-17 May) in Split, Croatia, a result which saw him qualify for the British Sailing Team Podium Squad.

The Marlow Ropes Award was introduced in 2002 with the aim of rewarding Britain’s most promising young sailors for their determination, focus and talent.

Just 18 months after transitioning from the Laser to the Finn, Cornish secured his first international top ten at the European Championship: “It’s nice to see the progression of a lot of hard work over the last couple of years being rewarded with a result.  It’s good to be moving up towards the front of the Finn fleet.”

He followed this up with an eighth place finish at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland, confirming his place in the British Sailing Team Podium Squad and now works alongside World Champion, Giles Scott.

“It’s been really useful doing all the speed testing stuff together – in a debrief you can relate to technique or just get his opinion of what you’re doing and the differences between the two. It’s being able to take the confidence that what he’s doing is clearly right, so there’s zero doubt that that’s what you should be trying to achieve.  I’ve found that really useful.”

Cornish is currently out in Rio training with Scott ahead of the Aquece Rio Test Event (15 – 22 August), and is already planning his 2020 Olympic campaign: “Rio is really a bit too soon for me, so the Tokyo Games is the one I’m looking ahead to.

“Although there’s only one spot for the Games each time, there are still a lot of major regattas between now and then, and it’s on my radar to try and keep improving and push on towards the top ten in the world.  Our World Championships this year are in November in New Zealand so I’ll be pushing to make the top ten there.  I think that’s a realistic target for me.”

The Marlow award entitles the British Sailing Team sailor to free Marlow rope for a year, not having to worry about the cost of equipment is an advantage for Cornish: “The Marlow Award has been really useful to me – every bit of support that we get is a huge benefit, and having a company like Marlow who we use and we trust is really useful.

“Being able to cover our boats in their rope is what we need to do and gives me confidence that my kit is as good as it can be. Being able to use brand new rope and not having to worrying about the costs of replacing it is a massive advantage.”

Milly Stone, Marketing Executive, Marlow Ropes said: “The Marlow Ropes Award was designed to try and help the up and coming sailors of the British Sailing Team progress into the Podium Squad and give them all of the equipment they need in order to progress their career.

“The Award this time around will benefit Ben because he will be able to play around with different types of ropes in order to try and whatever suits his style of sailing.

“In all the years that we have run the Marlow Ropes Award we have always received feedback from the sailors and worked with them extensively on new products for each Olympic cycle. We find that working with the team is vital as the feedback we receive is influential in developing and improving our products at Marlow.”

As well as supporting up-and-coming sailors, Marlow Ropes are also the official supplier to the British Sailing Team thanks to its industry-renowned reputation for producing products tried, tested and trusted in the world’s harshest environments.

For further information on Marlow Ropes including the latest products and technical information visit www.marlowropes.com.

For the latest news from the British Sailing Team visit www.britishsailingteam.com, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @BritishSailing

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Article Published: August 06, 2015 11:04

via Marlow Ropes Award for Cornish | News | News & Events | RYA.

The Volvo Ocean Race heads for its fifth ‘ocean’ during SAIL Amsterdam 2015, to be held from August 19 to 23 when Team Brunel provides a centre point for the giant nautical show (full story below).

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, August 6 – The Volvo Ocean Race heads for its fifth ‘ocean’ during SAIL Amsterdam 2015, to be held from August 19 to 23, when Team Brunel provides a centre point for the giant nautical show.

The SAIL Amsterdam event is divided into five ‘ocean’ areas, each with its own theme. Dutch boat Team Brunel, which won a hard-fought second place in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 finishing on June 27, will be berthed in the Green Ocean, which represents sustainability, technology and innovation.

The team base and the Volvo Ocean 65 cross section, which was visited by nearly half a million during the nine-month race, will give the audience a glimpse of the most extreme sailing event for crews around the world.

After sailing in the race for nine months, covering four oceans, five continents and 38,739 nautical miles, Team Brunel and its Sailing Holland organising team join numerous international Tall Ships to form the backdrop of 2015 SAIL Amsterdam, the largest public event in the Netherlands with around two million expected to visit.

The cross section of a real one-design Volvo Ocean 65 is located next to the home of Team Brunel. The eight Brunel sailors and Onboard Reporter, Stefan Coppers, braved the oceans with this 65-foot/19.8 metre-long boat.

The cross section offers visitors to SAIL Amsterdam the chance to experience life in a Volvo Ocean 65. They can get a taste of what the Team Brunel sailors called home for nine months, racing around the planet.

During the opening hours of SAIL Amsterdam, Brunel’s hostesses will crew the Volvo Ocean 65 cross section. Guests can stand behind the wheel or sit at the media or navigation desk.

On Friday, August 21, they will have the opportunity to ask seven-time Volvo Ocean Race sailor, Team Brunel’s skipper Bouwe Bekking (Netherlands), about his personal experiences.

Fans of media productions may also bump into the team’s OBR, Coppers, who will be more than happy to give some useful tips.

Prior to the Volvo Ocean Race, The Set Company built the two Volvo Ocean 65 cross sections. Especially for SAIL Amsterdam, the Amsterdam company will sponsor this attraction and reconstruct the cross section 300 metres from where it was made.

Another Dutch company, Bazelmans AVR, sponsors all audio and video in the Volvo Ocean 65 cross section.

There will be two large screens, showing films of the Volvo Ocean Race that highlight the features and functionalities of the Volvo Ocean 65 one-design boats.

Additionally, the film ‘Team Brunel in the Volvo Ocean Race’ runs with spectacular images.

The Green Ocean can be found on the northern shore of the IJ, on the NDSM-dock.

via Volvo Ocean Race heads for fifth ‘ocean’ at SAIL Amsterdam 2015| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.

Sail shape is important

30 Jul 2015

The Clipper fleet of round the world yachts has Hyde Sails

Whether sails are professionally serviced or not often depends on the age of the sails, but regardless of this, owners should always take them off the boat over the winter, writes Katina Read.

“Sails should be eyeballed to see if they need service work which many lofts offer. Lofts will give the sails a once over and repair any broken stitching,” explained Hyde Sails salesman Andrew Woodhouse, known universally as ‘Wooderz’.

“What the service will do will allow the sailmaker to see if they need servicing or need new sails, depending on the usage and state of the sails. The sailmaker will have a financial interest in selling new sails.”

The decision needs to be made by the individual, he explained, with customers needing to decide what they expect from their sails – a sail or a white triangle.

“Sail shape is important to the racing sailor and to many cruising sailors – the whole idea of having a cruising boat is that they sail from A to B rather than motoring,” said Wooderz.

And he warned that if users do want to order a set of sails, they should do it when the sailmaker is offering deals at the end of the season, rather than the week before Easter, days before their boat is due to be launched.

“Every sailmaker’s calendar is the same – sails need to be ordered in the autumn, before Christmas. The financial adviser – usually the wife – will also be a lot happier as the sails will be cheaper.

“I often hear the line ‘I don’t know when Easter is’ with customers still expecting their new sails to be ready on time for their boats to be launched, despite only ordering them the week before.”

For Hyde Sails, the most popular sails are either top end quality racing sails, or the cheapest possible that do not necessarily provide the best value for money if users want longevity and performance.

The company supplies sails for Optimists up to 80 footers and says the range of sail cloths available is expanding.

Previously sails were made of cotton and polyester, but now additional fibres, such as Dyneema and Spectra are being added to the weave, helping with longevity and sail shape.

In addition, cloths are now being produced with a UV finish for users sailing in hotter climates.

“Technology and knowledge is improving, for example, the early laminate sails used to delaminate after a couple of years, but now they are not delaminating as quickly as they used to.

“Users need to know what they’re going to be using the sail for; it comes down to aspirations, cash and pocket,” said Wooderz. “Users have to trust their sailmaker to sell the sail most applicable to the sailing they’re going to be doing.”

And he suggested when shopping around for sails and comparing quotes, it’s important to get the type of sail cloth and weight, together with sail area and specification, detailed in the quote.

The company has supplied sails to the latest Clipper Round the World Race with a mid-range cloth, a fabric, says Wooderz, that while at the end of the journey will look tired, will easily take them around the world.

via Boating Business – Sail shape is important.

Clipper Race 2015/16 start

31 Jul 2015

The fleet will departs St Katharine Docks and parade in the River Thames on Sunday 30 August 2015

CLIPPER: The start of the Clipper 2015-16 Round the World Yacht Race is nearing, with the yachts leaving Sunday 30 August at 1300 from St Katherine Docks on the River Thames, London.

The start of the tenth edition of the world’s longest ocean race for amateur sailors will be marked by the full fleet passing through Tower Bridge in a colourful parade down the Thames accompanied by a flotilla of spectator boats.

More than 700 crew members representing 42 different nationalities will participate in the 40,000 nautical mile race. The eight-leg race route will visit six continents and will take 11 months to complete.

Around 400 crew members hail from the UK and 130 specifically from London – double the figure of the 2013-14 edition – while 42 nationalities will be represented in total including New Zealand, Australian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Canadian, Irish, Singaporean, Russian, Pakistani, Latvian and Romanian, among others.

The amateur crew are largely novice, with 40% having never sailed before starting their training, but each yacht is under the command of a professional skipper.

They will be racing the latest generation fleet of 12 Clipper 70ft ocean racing yachts, specially designed for the extreme endurance test.

The details of Sunday 30 August are as below:

1100 – 1800: Free entertainment in the Race Village

1300: Official crew departure ceremony opens with teams on stage

1415: Fleet departs St Katharine Docks and parades in River Thames

1530: Fleet parades through Tower Bridge into the Upper Pool

1600: Fleet parades back through Tower Bridge to head down river

via Boating Business – Clipper Race 2015/16 start.

Prodrive joins Sir Ben at BAR

03 Aug 2015

The Prodrive deal will be a valuable asset to Land Rover BAR

AMERICA’S CUP: Prodrive is a company well known to motorsports followers, having won six World Rally titles, four British Touring Car Championships, four Le Mans titles and many others…

Now, the company – led by ex-Aston Martin chairman David Richards – has just secured a £6m growth capital investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund) and is to become a technical partner to Sir Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR America’s Cup team.

The Milton-Keynes based Prodrive Composites employs nearly 200 people and sales hit £13m last year.

A team of over a dozen engineers has been allocated to the America’s Cup project, both at Land Rover BAR’s headquarters in Portsmouth and at Prodrive’s new headquarters alongside the M40 in Banbury.

The brief for Prodrive is to help the team develop electrical, electronic and hydraulic control systems.

“I am a firm believer there is a huge amount we can learn from other sectors of the British design and engineering industry and, by using these skills, we can create the most competitive America’s Cup challenger,” said Mr Ainslie.

“When I visited Prodrive and talked to David Richards, it was immediately clear to me that they had the right technical skills, resources and competitive instinct to make a real difference to our programme.”

Prodrive started working on the project in June 2014 and has already developed the hydraulic control system for the foils on the first prototype boat, which lift the 45 foot catamaran hull clear of the water.

The company will now work on other areas of the final design, as well as manufacturing unique components for the yacht, including its lightweight aerospace specification wiring harnesses.

“Our engineers are used to working in a highly competitive sporting environment where, only by analysing and optimising every aspect of a racing car, can we produce the most competitive package,” said Mr Richards.

“We are bringing this motorsport approach to Ben’s already exceptional team of marine engineers to ensure that Ben and the team have the best opportunity to bring the America’s Cup home to Britain for the first time.”

via Boating Business – Prodrive joins Sir Ben at BAR.

04 Aug 2015

Ipanema Beach – just outside the entrance to Guanabara Bay. Care to take a dip?

MUDDY WATERS: After the Associated Press (AP) ran its story on Rio Filth last weekend, it seems people are at last sitting up and taking notice.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has apparently told the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to get its act together to analyse virus levels in Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic waters.

And the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has also apparently decided it’s time it started doing its own independent virus tests.

Talking to the AP, Peter Sowrey, CE of ISAF said: “We’re going to find someone who can do the testing for us that can safely cover what we need to know from a virus perspective as well as the bacteria perspective.”

“That’s my plan,” he added…

Hopefully, the end result of all this sudden breast beating and self chastisement will be for the Rio authorities to move the relevant sports to less inhospitable areas for the athletes.

And BB offers its thanks to Illinois based journalist and Lake Michigan sailor Glenn T McCarthy, who started beating the drum to alert MNAs and journalists to the Rio filth.

The potential for athletes to succumb to appalling illnesses following a dunking (or even a few drops of spray) in the Rio filth is enormous.

Just to reinforce the appalling level of contamination, here is one of Mr McCarthy’s lists that will give you cause to think:

Guanabara Bay is 17 by 19 miles, and has 55 rivers feeding into it, most of which have been declared dead by scientists, from the heavy pollution.

Today the daily untreated sewage water of 7,000,000 people is dumped into Guanabara Bay.

Rio Olympic Committee originally promised in their bid package to the International Olympic Committee to have 80% of sewage treated by the opening ceremony in 2016 (leaving 1,400,000 people’s sewage dumped daily).

Most recently, the Rio Organizing Committee said they would not reach the 80% goal, and now expect to be a little over 50% cleaned (leaving about 4,000,000 people’s daily raw sewage dumped into Guanabara Bay.

People who have sailed in Guanabara Bay have reported sailing past dead cats, dogs, cows and human bodies through the years.

While the fetid water is the concern for health, for the athletes fairness, the water is covered with trash with everything from couches, TVs, chairs, desks, garbage, etc, which can slow a boat down, cause it to capsize (sending the athletes swimming in the water) or stop them in a crash if an object is submerged providing an unfair playing field.

Some efforts have been made to rectify this, but for now those efforts have been shut down.

The famous Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches are just outside the entrance to Guanabara Bay, but surely they must lose some of their appeal after all these revelations?

via Boating Business – Rio filth.

Mylor Sailability

05 Aug 2015

SOUTH WEST: Paralympic sailor Carol Dugdale has officially opened new facilities at Cornwall’s Mylor Sailability writes Katina Read.

The facilities have been funded by the National Lottery’s Sport England fund together with donations from charities, individuals and Mylor Yacht Harbour.

They consist of new classrooms and changing facilities together with a specially adapted pontoon and a hoist to make sailing more accessible for wheelchair users or those with other severe disabilities.

Now the facilities are up and running Mylor Sailability hopes to create more training days, with the help of further donations and funding, which will allow them to concentrate on a more competitive approach – including some race training for participants.

Mylor Sailing School was founded by Tracey Boyne around 10 years ago, with the Mylor Sailability charity formed in 2013 after high demand for sailing and powerboating activities.

via Boating Business – Mylor Sailability.

AMERICA’S CUP: Over 130,000 people turned up in Southsea last weekend to see Ben Ainslie and his Land Rover BAR team take the all important first win in the gale shortened ACWS event.Land Rover BAR showed the six strong fleet the way home on the Saturday, with a strong first and a recovery from last but one to a second place to lead the fleet with 19pts; just one ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand.But racing was cancelled on the Sunday as a low pressure system swept across Britain, bringing gale force winds with 40kt gusts, way over the upper level for AC45f racing.The loss of the final two races on Super Sunday meant that the prizes were settled on Saturday’s results – leaving Sir Ben’s Land Rover BAR as the winner.Amongst many disappointed spectators were Their Highnesses, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Like thousands of others, they had visited Portsmouth hoping to see the America’s Cup contenders go into battle.Despite the lack of action on the water they still had a busy day, meeting the sailors from the different teams, and many of the people that had helped put on the event.They also visited the new home of Land Rover BAR, to meet both team members and their families. The couple also met with the 1851 Trust, of which The Duchess is Royal Patron, and concluded the day by presenting the prizes in a ceremony at the Historic Dockyard.Gusts over 37 knots were recorded at Southsea Common, and the Waterfront Festival and Fanzone Arenas had to be shut down for public safety.Race organisers initially rescheduled the racing to a midday start, to try to beat the arrival of the worst of the weather, but it wasn’t to be and, as the wind howled and the rain beat down, organisers reluctantly abandoned their efforts to put on the show.Final standings:1. Land Rover BAR – 19 points2. Emirates Team New Zealand – 183. ORACLE TEAM USA – 164. Groupama Team France – 135. SoftBank Team Japan – 136. Artemis Racing – 11All America’s Cup teams have been given the right to run their own AC45f ACWS event, but so far – after Portsmouth – the only dates known are Gothenburg, Sweden – August 27-30, 2015 and Hamilton, Bermuda – October 16-18, 2015

via Boating Business – Land Rover BAR takes the ACWS win.

Euros medal success for Pink and Bithell

Written by RYA | 12 July 2015

49er duo claim European silver and overall event bronze at the 49er Europeans

World number one-ranked duo John Pink and Stuart Bithell fought back from a penultimate day disqualification to finish as the second European crew at the 49er European Championships, which drew to a close on Sunday (12 July) in Porto, Portugal.

Pink and Bithell, who claimed bronze at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland last month, concluded the six-day Open regatta – which permits off-continent entries – in third place overall.

New Zealand’s World Champions Pete Burling and Blair Tuke sealed the overall regatta victory with Germany’s Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme, the top European crew, in second overall.

Fellow British Sailing Team pairing Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign were sixth overall, and the fourth European crew with James Peters and Fynn Sterritt 15th overall (12th Europeans).

After a solid race series seeing them in strong contention for the podium spots, Pink and Bithell were disappointed to fall foul of a jury decision on Saturday which saw them handed a race disqualification for an alleged port-starboard incident with the Kiwi crew.

It left the British duo in eighth place heading into Sunday’s final day, where a planned three gold fleet races followed by a ten-boat double-points medal race meant that everything was still to play for.

After a short postponement at the start of the day, the British duo came out fighting, posting a third and a 16th in their first two races.

“We’re pretty happy to have come back so strong after a disappointing outcome from our protest yesterday,” Pink explained.

“But that fired us up for today and we had a good first race, an average second.  We didn’t actually know the points going into the last race and we thought at that time we were still going to have a medal race.”

The British pair rounded off the final fleet race – and what turned out to be the final race of the regatta – in style with a race win, and with the race committee running out of time to stage the medal race, Pink and Bithell had done enough to finish as second European crew as well as sealing overall event bronze.

“We’ve got a new boat here and we were using a different rig to normal as we have all of our best kit going to Rio,” Pink explained.

“We were happy to get all that tuned in in the first two days and then we developed on that as the week went on and built some confidence in how quick we were going.

“We raced well – we had a few silly mistakes that cost us a few places but other than that we raced very well and went pretty quick.  We’ve just got to cut those little bits out and we’ll be pushing even harder on the Kiwis.”

The pair will have a short break before flying to Rio in two weeks’ time ahead of the Olympic Test Event, and Pink believes that Porto with its tidal challenge and big swell has been a useful warm-up.

Meanwhile, a medal race capsize for John Gimson and Hannah Diamond put paid to their hopes of a podium finish at a weather-disrupted Nacra 17 World Championship in Aarhus, Denmark, where just eight races could be staged in the five days up to the final medal race.

The duo went into the medal race in ninth place overall but with their rivals close ahead on points.  They started strongly and were second at the first windward mark before a huge gust caused them to capsize.  They finished the race in ninth to end their regatta in tenth overall.

“It was gutting because if we were 20 metres behind it would have completely missed us and there was nothing we could do to stay upright!” Diamond explained.

“It’s been a fun and challenging week and we leave motivated to go again Rio – once the bruises have healed!”

The British Sailing Team’s Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves concluded their regatta  in 12th, Lucy Macgregor and Dave Evans were 21st, and Tom Phipps and Nikki Boniface were 24th.

via Euros medal success for Pink and Bithell | Home | News | The British Sailing Team | RYA.