Francois Gabart rounded Cape Horn on New Year’s day more than four days ahead of the previous record. 7000 miles to the finish. They left New York shoveling snow and ice off the deck.
Bernard Stamm (4th place) has been disqualified from the Vendee Globe for having accepted outside assistance.
Giovanni Soldini and “Maserati” (volvo 70) set sail on an attempt to break the record from New York to San Francisco set by Yves Parliez.
Oracle racing is feverishly working to complete two boats to get back out on the water. The Vendee Globe sailors have reached the halfway point. They have under 12,000 miles to sail to the finish. Blazing speeds with 2 miles separating the two lead boats halfway through the race.
Jan Gougeon has died. One of the bright spots in sailing for years, certainly in my lifetime.
The Vendee Globe non-stop single-handed around the world race is in it’s third week. Speeds are high; a new 24 hour record of 483 miles for a single-handed boat was set and re-broken the next day. Francois Gabart is the new record holder.
I grew up with the legend of the Yacht Atlantic crossing the atlantic in 1905 in 12 days, with a 24 hour run of 341 miles. A record that stood for years, but it is a new world.
The photograph above I took around 1973 in Norfolk, VA. The Atlantic was as you see her and the USS United States was still there as well. Speaking of records, the USS United States
held the Blue Ribbon (record across the atlantic for a passenger ship)
The Rhode Island Marine Trades Association will present its first Anchor Award to Rhode Island sailing brothers Ken and Brad Read Saturday at the association’s Industry Partnership Breakfast & Member Meeting.
The meeting will be from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Newport Yacht Club before the start that day of the Newport International Boat Show.
The Read brothers grew up sailing on Rhode Island waters and turned their passion for boating into careers in the world of competitive sailing. Through their activities, Ken and Brad Read draw worldwide attention to their home state as a sailing destination and a capital of the global marine industry.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., will join business and community leaders to honor the Reads and talk about the importance of the marine industry to the state’s economy. The Ocean State’s 400 miles of coastline and its deep maritime heritage have helped build an industry that accounts for $1.6 billion in sales and $260 million in income to Rhode Island workers.
“I’m honored to help present this award to Ken and Brad for their outstanding contributions to the marine trades industry, which supports so many people and businesses in Rhode Island,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “Our oceans and coasts are central to our economy and our culture, and I will continue working in the Senate to protect these resources and support this industry.”
Ken Read recently returned home to Rhode Island after racing around the world as skipper of Puma Ocean Racing in the Volvo Ocean Race. His team’s boat, Mar Mostro, was built in Rhode Island; its performance around the globe drew worldwide attention to the boat’s technology and build, as well as to the home-grown talents in the crew. Read was also Puma skipper in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, a former America’s Cup helmsman, two-time Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and the winner of 46 world, North American and national sailing championships.
Brad Read is executive director of Sail Newport, one of the country’s top public-access sailing centers. It creates affordable sailing opportunities for children and adults and draws world-class regattas to Newport. Under his leadership, Sail Newport has grown exponentially and has tripled the size of its fleet, creating more opportunity for all those who want to get out on the water. As chairman of the America’s Cup World Series Host Committee, he was a central player in drawing this summer’s America’s Cup event back to Rhode Island waters.
This is the first time Rhode Island Marine Trades Association is presenting its Anchor Award, which recognizes people who make a significant contribution to Rhode Island and its marine trades.
“We can think of no better recipients for this first-time award than Brad and Ken Read,” trade association president Wendy Mackie said in a statement. “They were once two young boys sailing in their home waters, and they have used their passion for sailing and their star power to draw more sailors and more attention back home to Rhode Island shores.”
I am one of the coaches for the NZ men’s 49er and the women’s 470 teams and have for the past 15 years also been working in the US sailing system with the top juniors.
Having brought 9 of the 12 NZ team members thru from Optis to the Olympic team and having won 17 world titles and over 60 NZ titles. (Plus numerous US national titles) I feel I can accurately give a comparison of the two systems. Here are my thoughts:
Obviously the present management and coaches need to go, and those who appointed them need to have a long hard look at themselves in the mirror.
I have a great fondness for the US sailing scene and have had many great experiences over the years, but since I have been in this system, the numbers of sailors have dropped, the coach numbers have increased and the results have declined. Sad.
John Morgan
Morgan Yacht Design
Bomani Jones is a contributor at SBNation.com, where he writes and stars in a YouTube show called “Bomani & Jones.” He’s also a regular contributor to ESPN’s “Around The Horn.” He is on Twitter.
UPDATED AUGUST 10, 2012, 7:05 AM
After seeing the majestic diversity of the Olympics’ Parade of Nations, a visual representation of the best of the Olympic ideal, the last thing I want to watch is a sport where the biggest determinant of success is being rich. I could ask for many sports to be removed on this basis, but I’ll go with sailing because … well, who wants to watch boats that don’t make lots of noise?
O.K., I can do better — what does sailing embody that anyone loves, specifically, about the Olympics? Where is the simplicity of the event that gives the impression that anyone could participate?
You need to be of a certain class with special access to sail. In an event that celebrates inclusion, it is the most exclusive.
Even with sports like swimming and rowing, which cost too much for many, anyone could, theoretically, participate. There’s nothing stopping someone from doing backflips and the other staples of gymnastics.
Sailing? The name of the game is access. The touching human interest stories that buoy NBC’s ratings for the Olympics are somewhere between rare and nonexistent. It’s clearly an activity for a particular class stratus and, given how overwhelmingly white the Olympic participants are, it’s clearly not the world’s game.
If the Olympics is going to wrap itself in touchy-feely stories, it’s hard to get behind sports that are so obviously exclusive. If the Games are supposed to bring the world together, we can do without sports that do the opposite.
We revisit this subject frequently, but after the performance of the American sailors, who are very good, by the way, but were clearly out classed.Not even close to medal contention. Anyone who followed the team leading up to the Olympics would have seen that the team never won any major events. They were never really in contention in the previous three years.
Fingers must be pointed; but in which direction? Was their preparation so far askew? Is US Sailing the governing body in the United States missing the mark? Are the coaches so bad? What to do?
US Sailing has created a game & sweepstakes, something to argue over, much like american idol. Asking people to vote for their choice for the title “Greatest American Sailor” Good Luck.
With a little help from a friend, Andy, who alerted me to the followup on this story.
Agency tasked with overseeing military and government spectrum use says interference with other devices is unavoidable.
LightSquared suffered a possibly fatal blow today when the FCC said it would indefinitely suspend the company’s effort to build a national wireless broadband network using satellite spectrum.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a Department of Commerce agency tasked with overseeing military and government spectrum use, determined that LightSquared’s interference with other devices, including GPS devices, was unavoidable.
“Based on NTIA’s independent evaluation of the testing and analysis performed over the last several months, we conclude that LightSquared’s proposed mobile broadband network will impact GPS services and that there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference at this time,” the NTIA said in a letter (PDF) to the Federal Communications Commission.
Based on those findings, the FCC said it would “suspend indefinitely” the startup’s conditional waiver to operate. “The commission clearly stated from the outset that harmful interference to GPS would not be permitted,” the FCC said. “Consequently, the commission will not lift the prohibition on LightSquared.”
LightSquared responded by saying that it disagreed with the NTIA’s conclusions, arguing that they were based on a “severely flawed testing process.” However, the company “remains committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry to resolve all remaining concerns. LightSquared is confident that the parties will continue the on-going efforts to explore all engineering options and alternatives to find a solution to this difficult issue.”
The FCC granted LightSquared a waiver in 2011 to tap its spectrum, which is supposed to be used for satellite and terrestrial communications, for terrestrial only use. As a condition of this waiver, the FCC said that there can’t be any harmful interference between LightSquared and others in nearby spectrum.
But the GPS industry claims that LightSquared’s network will interfere with its receivers. Meanwhile, LightSquared acknowledges potential interference issues, and it’s already agreed to not use the spectrum closest to the GPS bands. It’s also demonstrated how filters can be used to mitigate interference.
RYA Tribunal proceedings relating to Ben Ainslie conclude:
The RYA Tribunal met on 9 February 2012 to consider a report dated 14 December 2011 received pursuant to the Racing Rules of Sailing Rule 69.1(c) from the International Jury at the ISAF Sailing World Championships held in Perth in December 2011.
The Tribunal agreed with the decision of the International Jury that the behaviour of Mr Ben Ainslie amounted to a gross breach of good manners and conduct that brought the sport into disrepute.
Having considered all the evidence put before it, the Tribunal was satisfied that it would not be appropriate for the Tribunal to impose a penalty over and above that imposed by the International Jury at the event.
In reaching its decision the Tribunal acknowledged that the effect of the penalty imposed by the International Jury was to deny Mr Ainslie the possibility of taking part in the medal race for the event.
The Tribunal also recognised that there was an apparent lack of active management of media boats at this and previous events leading to repeated infringements of the provisions of the event media boat guidelines. In addition, formal rights of redress against official boats were not available to competitors.
The Tribunal noted that it had had an opportunity to view evidence that was not available to the International Jury during the hearing at the event.
The RYA, as the ISAF Member National Authority for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has jurisdiction under Rule 69.2 to take action in response to reports made to it under Rule 69.1 relating to British sailors and the Council of the RYA has delegated its authority in such matters to the RYA Tribunal.
Now I know it is time for a break from winter.
