Sailors and yachting photographers are looking forward to the annual Worrell 1000, the sometimes carnage-ridden event that heralds the arrival of Spring to the Eastern Seaboard. Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston, winners of last year’s Worrell will be back at it again on the fifth of May when the annual trek from Miami Beach, Fla., to Virginia Beach, Va., sailed on 20-foot Intercat catamarans, begins. %image1%
The course, which takes almost two weeks to complete, is made up of 12 stopovers between the starting line and the finish, of which the longest leg is 122 miles. Sailors endure long days of point-to-point racing, tough weather conditions (Spring in the North Atlantic), and sometimes, near-impossible launching and landing conditions.
http://www.worrell1000.com/
The entry list for the Rolex Commodore’s Cup officially opened with the confirmation that Belgium would be attending the regatta, scheduled for August 11-18, 2002, at Cowes. The three-boat team will be composed of a First 47.7, a First 40.7, and an IMX 40. The last time a Belgian team raced the event was 1998.
Seventeen other teams have indicated their intent to enter, including boats from Australia, France, Holland, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, the home nations of the U.K., and the U.S.
The Biennial Commodore’s Cup consists of six days of racing that includes a 24 to 36-hour offshore race, a 12-hour inshore race, and seven buoy races. Crews must be at least 50 percent amateur and an amateur must helm during the inshore races and start the offshore race. Only two teams per country are allowed.
http://rorc.org/
Sunday at 7p.m., the crew of Maiden II turned their East-West transatlantic record attempt into a training exercise. With 200 miles to go and not enough breeze to sail fast enough to break Grant Dalton’s Club Med record–14h: 53:m:44s, set in June2000, with an average speed of 15.23 knots the–110-foot Maiden II turned its bows toward Antigua.
“With only four day’s training to get used to the boat and get her up to speed,” said Maiden II‘s Sailing Director Tracey Edwards, who wasn’t aboard for the attempt. “To come so close is an achievement in itself. Grant Dalton had been training for months before they tried the record. The crew have clearly proved that they’re on the pace with this amazing boat.” http://www.maiden2.com
The crew of _ Orange_, sistership to Maiden II, are still on pace to break the Jules Verne record despite a slowdown just south of the Equator. Nick Moloney reports that conditions are much improved since they left the Southern Ocean. “Life is great right now onboard actually. After such a long stint in the South we really appreciate simple comforts. A little sunshine, not leaping off waves whilst trying to use the toilet, crossing the tramp without getting soaked or without the fear of being washed away by a wave bursting through. A little relief for the mind and body.”
“I am very interested in the weather right now as I have never sailed south to north in the Atlantic this far east. Our track will be similar to that sailed in the closing stages of the Vendee so I’m doing a little research.”
http://www.orange.fr http://www.nickmoloney.com/
George Andreadis, sailing his Farr 40 _Atalanti XI_, has won the first event of the Farr 40 Mediterranean Championship handily, taking first by 20 points. Olympic gold medallist Robbie Haines sailed as tactician for Andreadis in this series, which was held in 8 to 14-knot winds in the Bay of Naples. Second place was _Struntje Light_, with British tactician Iain Percy calling the shots. The four-day event is the first of the three-regatta Mediterranean Farr 40 series, which will continue in Porquerolles, off Hyeres, France, on May 16-19, and be followed by the final in Porto Rotondo, Italy, on June 27-30.
http://www.infolinkitalia.it/farr40_naples/html/
“We match raced Blue Yankee all the way up the coast,” said Mark MacNamara, a crewmember on Joe Dockery’s Farr 60 _ Carrera_, the corrected-time winner of this year’s biennial Miami to Baltimore race. Carrera‘s crew, which included Roy Heiner and navigator Ed Adams hung tight to Bob Towse’s Reichel/Pugh 66_Blue Yankee_ all the way to the finish line in Baltimore, finishing only nine minutes after the larger boat.
The consolation for Towse and crew was the fact that their elapsed-time record from the 2000 race is still the benchmark for the 871-mile race as conditions were much lighter this year.
http://www.stormtrysail.org
