A-Class SUI, GER & AUT Nats Championship for Wallmer (1st Overall) , Keller (2nd Overall) & Heinzle

 
I was waiting for some pics to publish this that finally weren´t available. Long title for a great joined event with 50 A-Cats on the starting line. Sascha Wallmer took the overall and the Swiss Nat crown. The Class keep showing how competitive it is in terms of designs and sailors level as shown by Bob Baier winning the French Nats overall the current World Champ and now ending 4th in his local waters.

Same with designs, we had Paasch Nikita in two recent wins,  Baier's Nikita in France, Lars Vision at Danish Nats and now Wallmer Scheurer G6 followed by Thilo Keller's new Arrow MKII.

Although in sails my friends at Landenberger are building up a 'Monopoly', as all these events and the top five in this last one are from them. But Heemskerk will put some pressure there with his new 'Mischa Sails' he already used at the French Nats and North Sea regatta in the F18. 
Chris Field is also performing with Hammer sails. And Ashby sails, well  I guess Glenn is too busy with Team New Zealand right now.

Report by Thilo Keller and Results at A Class official website http://www.a-cat.org/

AC72s: Historic first encounter at SF

Looking forward it was great seeing live 3 AC72s training finally at San Francisco, where the Americas Cup LV series will take place in 6 weeks. New Zealand was foiling with ease as the first day.

Again hope Artemis can race as I mentioned many times only if they have some reassurance & confidence on their equipment, as even an official report from them has stated. Wind limits have been recommended by the Org and ETNZ has support them in an official statement, more info at
Image above Chris Cameron, left Live webcam. 

Andrew Simpson Memorial and family donation details at http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/Andrew.aspx

Delta Lloyd N17 Regatta: Day 3

All images Jasper Van Staveren - More at CSN FB. Iker Martinez with Tara Pacheco getting in the comfort zone with the N17 with several top 5 results. "Usual suspects" for top 4 with the Aussie star youths also performing. Mandy Mulder & Thijs Visser already won at Palma and here they are a step ahead till now with 3 bullets & a 3nd out of 6 races and 12 points apart from French Top Guns Moana-Audinet and Ogerau-Vandame.
More images by Sander van der Borch at deltalloydregatta.photoshelter.com

Top Ten below.
Full Results at http://results.deltalloydregatta.org/

R	Country	Sail	Skipper	Crew 1	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	NED	NED40	MULDER Mandy	VISSER Thijs	1	1	2	1	(5)	1	6
2	FRA	FRA65	VAIREAUX Moana	AUDINET Manon	(RAF)	5	3	4	1	5	18
3	FRA	FRA63	OGEREAU Audrey	VANDAME Matthieu	8	2	1	2	(9)	8	21
4	SWE	SWE12	SHUWALOW Tim	KLINGA Hanna	4	4	(14)	6	2	6	22
5	AUS	AUS36	WATERHOUSE Jason	DARMANIN Lisa	2	(7)	7	3	4	7	23
6	NED	NED 44	GROENEVELD Renee	BEGEMAN Karel	3	(9)	8	7	6	2	26
7	ESP	ESP108	MARTINEZ Iker	PACHEGO Tara	(OCS)	3	4	10	12	3	32
8	AUT	AUT35	ZAJAC Thomas	CHIARA FRANK Tanja	5	8	10	5	(14)	4	32
9	GBR	GBR60	SAXTON Ben	DIAMOND Hannah	12	10	5	(OCS)	3	10	40
10	NED	NED46	DELNOOZ Elke	de KONING Coen	6	12	11	13	7	(14)	49

Phantom Foiling Vid #2: Americas Cup preview

Sent by Alex Udin / Sail Innovation. Foiling no spi a la ETNZ & Luna Rossa AC72. The Moths are getting themselves a future rival with all the cat flying projects going around. Forget about any technical analysis , this is just pure adrenaline fun. They claim 26,5 Knots in 9-11Knots True wind.

Hobie French Nats 2013

All Images Alain Rumeau. Full Gallery here -- Hobie continues to provide alternatives to the entire range of sailors, from kids with the Dragoon to youth and mixed crews in the H16 to those looking for a higher level with the Wildcat F18.
More info and pics at https://www.facebook.com/cathobiefranceassociation

Nacra 17 @Delta Lloyd Regatta: Day 1 Results

Image by Jasper van Staveren. 17 boats for the Nacra 17 Olympic Class.
No surprises for the lead with Mulder-Visser , but great progression for one of the French crews in 2nd place, Audrey Ogerau & Matthieu Vandame are growing in each event and also nice second event for the Aussie super experienced youth crew, Waterhouse-Darmanin in 3rd.
Top ten below - Full Results at http://results.deltalloydregatta.org/

Pos	Cty	Skipper	Crew	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	NED	MULDER Mandy	VISSEL Thijs	1	1	2	4
2	FRA	OGEREAU Audrey	VANDAME Matthieu	8	2	1	11
3	AUS	WATERHOUSE Jason	DARMANIN Lisa	2	7	7	16
4	NED	GROENEVELD Renee	BEGEMAN Karel	3	9	8	20
5	SWE	SHUWALOW Tim	KLINGA Hanna	4	4	14	22
6	AUT	ZAJAC Thomas	CHIARA FRANK Tanja	5	8	10	23
7	ESP	MARTINEZ Iker	PACHEGO Tara	ocs	3	4	25
8	FRA	VAIREAUX Moana	AUDINET Manon	raf	5	3	26
9	GBR	SAXTON Ben	DIAMOND Hannah	12	10	5	27
10	NED	DELNOOZ Elke	de KONING Coen	6	12	11	29

A-Class Flight Development: Q&A with Mischa Heemskerk

Sequence Denis Lucci. -- Mischa Heemskerk is current A-Class World Champ, he is also top F18 contender for years now with Bastian Tentij. Today they won the F18 North Sea Regatta on the Cirrus R and Mischa's own sails. Together they are also training with the Hydros team along Billy Besson&Jeremie Lagarrigue) to compete in the C-Class major event.
I published earlier this week some great images and flight sequence by Denis Lucci on Mischa having the first documented stable flight on a legal A-Class.
I contacted him to know more about this ride and the development and required skills to reach this point, as it seems right now this is no automatic mode a la ETNZ AC72, and sailors skills play a great part of the flight license. Q&A below
 -------------------------

F18 Worlds @Grossetto: 165 Entries confirmed

2013.f18worlds.com After a first successful event in America with 120 boats, the Class returns to Europe. Italy will host this edition at Marina di Grossetto and 165 boats Confirmed (check link below) and surely more will be entering their registration soon. Remember we are in the Open period, so first come first served. Arg will be sending 6 crews at least and one Uru crew working on getting the boat.
Entry List

There are some requests that I've received:
- Wanted: Brand new Hobie Wildcat to be delivered at Grossetto before the Worlds.
- Offered: Brand new Phantom to be delivered after a charter use (by the current buyer) at the Worlds
- Offered: 1 Windrush Edge available to charter. And others to be sold after the Worlds.

If interested or you know someone who does, contact me and I'll will contact you directly with them.

North Sea Regatta ended as reported in previous F18 post, Mischa Heemskerk-Bastian Tentij won, as no race today due to lack of wind.
Below F18 vid from the Schweriner Cat Cup 2013 sent by Jakob Lenz

Tornado Europeans 2013: Team Gaebler 1st

Rerport sent by Andrew Dowley --------
"With light winds early in the morning the postponement flag went up for the Tornado Class and the sailors remained on shore watching the A Class’ float out to their racing area. Around 1 hour later the race officer removed the postponement and the sailors got ready and went out onto the water.

It was Roland and Nahid Gaebler who held the lead going into the last day and they were hoping there would be no racing because the Greek team of Iordanis and Kostas could discard a 5th if there was further racing in the championship.

Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta 2013: Heemskerk-Tentij Champs

Windrush Edge on the Rise & available to charter at Grossetto

M2 Speed Tour 2013

Tornado Europeans 2013 Day 3

The forecast was always due to be bad for the third day of racing and the sailors awoke to a fresh force 4 wind with heavy cloud cover.

When it was time to hit the water the wind was building with choppy water and big waves. The race officer got the fleet off to a quick start for the first race, another clean start. It was Iordanis Paschalidis and Kostas Trigonis who led the fleet all the way round the race course to take victory. They were followed by the Gaeblers in 2nd and Nikos and Alex (GRE 11) in 3rd position.

Luna Rossa back to sail & foil at SF

Image by Carlo Borlenghi.  Time to sail again. Although as Bundy is remarking, holding a press conf dedicated to safety and not following the expert panel recommendations on not to sail until further notice is at least strange. But well it is part of the mind / political games, ACup stuff as usual. Is their right and their choice, Racing mode is On again for LR.
Great images though of LR easy foiling no spi at SF bay. More at http://luna-rossa-challenge-2013.americascup.com/en/latest/2645/luna-rossa-foiling-on-the-san-francisco-bay

Luna Rossa will race. Bertelli Stament: Common Sense & Sailors safety.

The right words were spoken by Patrizio Bertelli in this case focusing on the security of his team.
Sailors are main asset, and all should revolve now around them. This is no kamikaze game, and only them should decide whether to race or not beyond any possible indication they might get from the management.

The right thing to do at this stage instead on blaming x or y as some are doing, is acting as Bertelli: Asking your team what & how they feel about current situation.
He has not hide or blame a protocol/rules they have agreed to participate in, there is no room for this now.

Foiling Week... Paradox skimming flight

Dario Valenza has been working hard on his Paradox project. Lots of two boat testing recently plus some modifications on foils.  Above a perfect trimmed skimming flight, below the on board video.
Hope to see the Paradox racing good at Barcelona if they attend, looking towards the 2014 Worlds in New Zealand.
A local made A-Cat is always a key part for any class growth development.

More info at Carbonic Boats FB

Foiling Frenzy: Custom F20C Flying Project

Great video from Bissaro-Sicouri Training N17 at Garda

Check super smooth airborn transition at 2:09 .
Report at bissaro-sicouri.it/en/diario-di-bordo-bilancio-posto-garda/

DNA & Misha Heemskerk = Production Racing Foiling Beachcat

All images by Denis Lucci...speaking about being at the right place at the right moment! -- The wait & speculation on when we will have a production beachcat capable of a stable flight is over.

This means that it will win all races/regattas? Not yet, as Mischa dominated downwind in the breeze at Hyeres ending with two bullets, but the combined conditions with calms didn´t summed up for winning the event that went to Bob Baier with a Nikita (12yrs design by Nils Bunkenburg). Mischa ended 6th.

But of course the combination of Mischa new acquired or transferred skills to the A-Class are helping DNA to have a too powerful racing package.

Next events and the European will provide more data on the effectiveness of this Flying mode.

But Beyond any

DNA Racing Flight

Report by Arno Terra from DNA. More info & pics will follow. Image Denis Lucci.

"Although Mischa demolished the fleet downwind in the races wiht a bit of breeze only a few people did see him fly. This pic might even be mistaken for a jump, therefore more pics later in which you will see a stable flight.

Roeland and I got a clinic by Mischa last Sunday when the races were cancelled and he taught us how to fly and keep control. If you do it wrong the boat becomes a wild animal and you start making aggressive jumps. If you do it right you can control the boat easy in 24 knots of breeze. It is unbelievable how well we could control the boat downwind. Flying makes life easier and the current wind limit becomes a joke.

You have to adjust the way you sail downwind but then you can control the height/heave with steering and sheet tension. If you do it right you will sail 10-15 degrees deeper and beat the angles of an F18."

The Cup and Red Bull Youth will continue as scheduled

The Cup and RBYAC will continue as scheduled was the main information that came out today from the press conference made by Tom Ehman & Ian Murray
Also that a special expert committee will review facts to provide  further recommendations.
All 4 teams confirmed to be willing to go on.

On the actual events, they said they are waiting for the Police report, so they don´t to get any info out before them.
The Coast Guard will continue to support the event, and they still must provide the permit for the event to take place.

Some interesting concepts were exposed on the conference that are somehow a lead on things to come. Specially Ian Murray's  point on the AC72 rule box, and how all boats are different, and how the teams manage their design / structural decisions.
This is something that can be said now, the AC72 are maybe too big, but it is fair to say how ETNZ have been testing and training to date with no major issues.
Assigning responsibility to the organization I think is not right, it is the same analogy on us sailors wanting to participate or not.

So no one forced any team to enter this Cup, and being a rule box the organization cannot be responsible for each team decision and work plan.

Can smaller cats be raced in the A Cup? of course, the AC45s have put on a show. But right now as remarked in press conference 7 AC72 were built and is the intention of the 4 teams , as per Tom Ehman & Murrays confirmation, that they are willing to race and continue participating in this Cup edition.

On the RBYAC it was confirmed that the German Federation don´t want to participate, but they indicated that the actual youth team still wants to race. And they also confirmed that there are several teams, as I wrote today, willing to participate if the Germans are out.

The Coast Guard Captain also pointed as we all know, is impossible to prevent a 100% issue free event in the sport of sailing.

But that is no excuse of course to review any failures in all areas, technical, rescue and so one to gather info to be passed as feedback to other teams and to be used as a learning process to provide the best assurance to the most important asset of this event, that of course are the sailors themselves.

I hope again, that Artemis can be able to participate in good shape, for Andrew Simpson crew mates to honor him in the best way possible.

Needless to say with sufficient guarantees on their safety on board plus adequate support logistics.
---------------

RBYAC: Germans out... Who is in?

It seems that the German Youth team has cancelled their participation on the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup on safety doubts . This is part of the self responsibility sailors have when entering or not a regatta, to put themselves in x situation or not. It is their right and of course part of the rules. 

I can tell you  that racing beachcats like H16 or F18 has its risks too, and not even in high winds. The closest I've been was getting stuck my head down and submerged while  hanging from the trapeze with the cat still going for some long, too long seconds.... 

F18s , Tornado,  N17 , F20c and others can reach 20knots of speed, pitchs are hard  and you put yourself in some hairy situations in the breeze.  A Tornado sailor died in an Olympic trial event after capsizing and getting trapped with his harness and boat lines. Quick release systems are now a must.  
In 1999 Americas Cup training a sailor got a deadly hit on a hardware failure. I've seen supposedly safe Americas Cup boats breaking in two and sinking, dismasting and more while racing , and the list goes on.

So there is always a risk while going out beyond having a perfect contingency plan.

With this said I'm sure some other teams will be eager to participate in their place. The AC45s have been racing for years now, and have shown to be pretty reliable in any condition.
I think is still a viable event with additional security & logistic measures that an event of this size should and can  guarantee and maybe some upper wind limits as is going to blow more than the trials.

There are Good Days and Bad Days

The other day I sent a message to a member of the team with just 2 lines showing my support, and remarking that if they decided to continue it was going to be the best way to honor Andrew.
C-Class guru Steve Clark put some good words in perspective in Will Clark's Sail blog http://clarksail.com/2013/05/13/for-andrew-simpson/:


By Steve Clark
"There are good days and bad days. Then there are days that are truly dreadful, when all the optimism and progress you have nurtured is broken and lost. When this is compounded by the death of a beloved comrade, the loss seems unbearable and will test the limits of faith and endurance.  Artemis Racing is at a time that will tax their characters to the limit.  We wish them all the strength and sprit to endure, recover and overcome.

Too much is said about the choice, about how the decision to put oneself in harms way,

F18 Young Guns for Grossetto Worlds: Bellet bros & Reiss-Whitehead

Artemis: Statement from Nathan Outteridge

Statement by Nathan Outeridge:
"The description of the accident in the Newcastle Herald while quoting my father is not correct and does not reflect the facts. Unfortunately it has been relayed by other media. Right now, we are all still mourning and working to understand what happened. I hope everyone can respect this and I thank all those who have expressed support."

http://artemis-racing.americascup.com/news/4528

A-Class French Nats 2013 for Bob Baier - Hervé Ledue French Champ

F18 French Nats 2013: Gurvan Bontemps & Benjamin Amiot Champs

Respect

I've been trying to find the right words to write something about what happened, but I desisted after reading some bitter people and finger pointing as their first reaction, forgetting about the real important thing these days, that was only showing some respect and remembering Andrew Simpson while supporting his family, crew mates and basically all the sailors and professionals involved in this Cup.

Behind the scenes a detailed investigation is taking place as informed. Main goal should be knowing what exactly  happened and analyzing how to try to prevent or minimize this in the future at every level of the sport.
After knowing the real facts we can express our views on technical matters and what path to follow.

Writing about technical and sport details on a top level event like the ACup is a thing, but when someone dies, the critic and opinion game is over.

Plenty of time to assign responsibilities if any, plenty of time to criticize or to decide what to do next. Lets waits for the official facts. 
At least I can´t start writing & speculating on the circulating rumours.
For now lets remember Andrew Simpson with respect.
http://andrewsimpsonmemorial.com/
----------------

D35s, Vulcain Trophy 2013: Alinghi wins at Open de Versoix

GC32 Austria Cup for Minoprio

GC32s @Austria: Day 4

F18 French Nats 2013: Day 2

Andrew Simpson, 17 December 1976 – 9 May 2013

Very few people I didn´t knew got me shocked with their death, Ayrton Senna was one and now Andrew Simpson. When I was a kid a Duke's  phrase got my attention  "One day I'll catch a perfect wave and just keep riding..." 

Keep sailing Andrew...

Artemis AC72 Capsized

Really a sad day for Sailing. More info to come , lets wait for official info regarding injured crews.
http://www.americascup.com/en/news/8/teams/15517/artemis-racing-capsize-ac72-during-training

Rest in Peace Andrew, my prayers with you and your family.
http://artemis-racing.americascup.com/news/4511

Formula 18 French Nats 2013: May 9-12th @Brest

Event starts today, 36 boats. I didn´t found the inscription list, but if Besson-Lagarrigue  (photo above at 2010 nats by Gilles  Clement) are in, they are my bet for the title. For Dark Horses the Bellet bros. 
2012 Title went to Erussard-Moerau. French F18 Assoc website: www.f18.fr

- Thursday 9 : 8 h 30 à 16 h inscriptions – 11hs Race  1 & 2
- Friday 10 : 10 h 30  3 à 4 Races . 17h Class Meeting
- Saturday 11 : 10 h 30  3 à 4 Races (Raid might be raced)
- Sunday 12 : 10 h00  2 à 3 Races  (pas de départ après 14h) – Results & Prize Giving.

GC32 First event in Austria at Lake Traunsee

X40s: Tough injury for Pierre Le Clainche at Qingdao

Pierre Le Clainche, 2x F18 Youth World Champ along Antoine Joubert, and currently racing with Red Bull on the ExSS,  suffered a bad injury while training at Qingdao for the Extreme Sailing Series. Really sad news on young sailor that is creating his path right from our own Formula 18 Class.

Just contacted him and he told me got several injuries on the ExSS training day in Qingdao.
"My left arm was damaged in a bad way and nobody can say if  I''ll use it again on the future. He is on Hong Kong airport in transit to Paris.
It's a bad shift but I'm getting ready to fight hard and to come back very soon. I'll let you know as soon as I'll have new updates from Nantes Hospital."

Pierre, I wish you a promptly recover, all the best from the Catsailing community, you'll come back even stronger.

Learning to gybe!

Sent by James Wierzbowski https://www.facebook.com/RxSailRacing

German & Swiss A-Class Racing weekend Results

F18 Arg. San Isidro Labrador 2013 for Gonzalez Smith-Heuser

Flying Phantom update : Elevated State of Mind

Francois Gabart @Eurocat 2013: Smooth Transition, Vendee to F18

Eurocat 2013 @Carnac: C1 & C3 Results

Artemis getting comfortable Flying their 45

From all the foiling videos I've seen in this Cup process, the most stable flights are from ETNZ AC72 and Artemis AC45.
That boat looks like on rails, but quite responsive too. What a shock would be if AR can get their act together for boat #2 and give ETNZ & LR a run for their money. Watchout with the already discarded Challenger.
Check last shot of the vid where AR is foiling jib only, and OR is struggling even with the gennaker up...
Whichever the case, and following the idea from previous AC72 post, this boats can become easily  the vessels of choice for the next Cup?

Radio Controlled Multis

Winged, foling RC Multis. Many fanatics out there, and maybe some highend designers should take a look? Videos & info sent by Jens Kruass  ------------
"There are also some other Multi Freaks out there, you probably did not report about yet....
Radio controlled sailing boats are quite common. Even SA reports about them. But there are a few freaks out there in the world, sailing radio controlled Multis. 

Oracle AC72 II: Foil Length

Clearly we are not going to see these boats in the AC for a while after this Cup. The scale, logistics and budget is too high even for the big teams. And the AC45s or a similar size Multi can have the same effect after this great show.
Of course we all welcome this crazyness, once in a lifetime to see these foiling beasts racing an Americas Cup event.
Image Guilain Grenier

Eurocat 2013: Besson-Lagarrigue Champs

Billy Besson & Jeremy Lagarrigue won with 3 bullets in 6 races and more than 10 points ahead to take a tricky weather Eurocat. Winds from 5 to 25 knots, and one day cancelled due to much wind. Besson-Lagarrigue were third at LA (Jeremy also 2nd with Cammas in 2008 Worlds) and they are also part of the Hydros team that is going to challenge in the C-Class LAC along Mischa Heemskerk-Bastian Tentij that were 4th today at Carnac.

Oracle AC72 MKII: 'Bullit'