ITL Solo Trans Tasman Yacht Race, Reini Gelder on Ave Gitana/Shark Angels breaks longstanding record

Reini Gelder has broken the Solo Trans Tasman Yacht Race record set by Ian Johnston on the trimaran Bullfrog in 1986 by 1 hour and 37 minutes.  Reini's Lock Crowther designed 40' trimaran a sistership to Bullfrog was in a class of it's own in the fleet easily outpacing the other multihull entrant Steven Arms on the Robin Chamberlain designed catamaran "Nitro" and winning the race by about 270nm.  The two multi competitors split early in the race with Steven Arms choosing to head North and Reini Gelder choosing to head South which ultimately turned out to be a better decision.

Race updates are being posted on the ITL New Plymouth to Mooloolaba solo trans tasman FB site:

https://www.facebook.com/2014-ITL-New-Plymouth-to-Mooloolaba-Solo-Tasman-Yacht-Race

Ave Gitana/Shark Angels at the start, photo courtesy Hamish Archer

Transpac update, Team Tritium/Lending club arrive in Honolulu

Team Tritium/Lending Club have arrived in Honolulu after completing the Transpac race.  They ended up being outside the record time with the boat having suffered considerable damage from impacts with debris along the route.  Congratulations guys well done and maybe next year you'll smash the record.

Here they are ! In 5 days, 11 h 52 min 38 s...great performance regarding the collisions the boat has had to suffer. Well done guys !

Transpac update, Team Tritium/Lending Club approaching the finish line

Team Tritium/Lending Club have now overhauled the whole Transpac fleet and are approaching Honolulu.  They are still making good progress despite a daggerboard which has been reduced to carbon splinters by multiple debris impacts.  A snapshot from the tracker shows them with a little over 200nm to go.  There is a 6 hour delay on the tracker so they are probably closer than that now.  They have AIS onboard so if it's switched on as they approach Honolulu it may be possible to follow them on http://www.marinetraffic.com

Transpac update, Team Tritium/Lending Club still in with a chance of improving multihull race record

From the following article on Latitude38

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2013-07-16#.UecbC8hAp8S

Latitude just got off the phone with multihull designer/sailor Gino Morrelli of Newport Beach. He had just come off the helm of the 72-ft trimaran Tritium  Lending Club, which is about halfway from Long Beach to Hawaii in hopes of setting an elapsed time record in the 47th TransPac. Here's the gist of our conversation:

38: Are you guys still on a record pace?
Gino: Right now we're about one hour off of it. We don't need too much wind, but we're hoping for a little more. We have about 12 to 14 knots of true wind right now at 135 degrees true, and we're able to do 15 to 18 knots. We're trying to sail as deep as possible. What we really need is about 14 to 18 knots of wind.

38: What's the forecast for the rest of the way?
Gino: A little on the light side.

38: What's the top speed so far?
Gino: I think Howie Hamlin hit over 30 knots the first night out.

read more here

Also an article posted on Sailing Anarchy news page

http://sailinganarchy.com/2013/07/17/what-its-like/

Transpac Yacht Race, Team Tritium/Lending Club tv spot on KITV

John Sangmeister and crew on Team Tritium/Lending Club still have a chance of taking the longstanding Transpac record set by Bruno Peyron on Commodore Explorer.  TV spot on KITV and interview with John.

http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/Former-Hawaii-resident-attempting-to-break-prestigious-record/-/8905354/21010756/-/g7kq3yz/-/index.html

Tranpac Race, Tritium/Lending Club still in with a chance on record despite multiple impacts on daggerboard

With the unfortunate dismasting of the Gunboat Phaedo, Tritium/Lending Club are the only multi left in the race.  The water is full of debris most likely from the Japanese tsunami and they have suffered several serious daggerboard impacts which have damaged the board but not the case (good crashbox design there).

From a Facebook posting by Ryan onboard Tritium/Lending Club

https://www.facebook.com/TritiumRacing?hc_location=stream

Last message from Ryan onboard Tritium Lending Club :

IT WAS A BIG AFTERNOON ON LENDING CLUB.

We have been vmg running since around midday, with the gennaker and J2 as a staysail, averaging around 20 knots. The record is within reach still, although a couple more knots of wind would be nice.
...
We had some problems with old trees today, logs in the water that we have run into. Guess we should have picked up a Garmin sonar to go with all the other instruments!!

Unfortunately one of the impacts was quite severe on the daggerboard, and instead of breaking the log in half as we did a couple times, we destroyed the daggerboard. WE had another slow down this afternoon and put the board in upside down, keeping us sailing properly, but creating terrible vibration throughout the boat.

Here's hopiong the next couple days are uneventful, we have all had enough of the slowdowns and repair work.

Everyone is eating well, and the stars are out in force tonight, along with a beautiful breeze in the mid teens.

Ryan

and a video recap of the race so far:

Roman Paszke starts westabout circumnavigation attempt

After repairs have been carried out to the failed rudder on Roman Paszke's catamaran Gemini 3 he has restarted on his westabout circumnavigation attempt.

28 ° 7'9 .48 "N, 15 ° 24'46 .08" W source: news

from the start: 0 H | distance traveled: 0 nm

December 27, 2012 at 4:06:27 p.m. year (UTC) Roman Paszke catamaran Gemini 3 launched cruise around the world, alone non - stop, by the wind.

read more at http://paszke360.com/

The tracker for the attempt is here

Roman Paszke's westabout circumnavigation attempt (Paszke360)

Polish sailor Roman Paszke is attempting to do a westabout navigation of the globe in record time on his 27 metre Marstrom ocean racing catamaran.  It's been a rocky road for him with gear breakages ending the first attempt and more problems on the more recent attempt with his rudder.  The site is in Polish but google translate seems to work well enough to give you a good idea whats happening.

http://paszke360.com/

Multicoque Aventure (Multihull Adventure) set new reference time on the 'Round the Ile aux Moines' record in Brittany

Courtesy of Multihull World:

http://www.multihulls-world.com/us/index.html

The crew over at "Multicoque Aventure" have set a new reference time for the "Round the IIe aux Moines" record in Brittany on their Formula 28 catamaran.

From the team:

"On 12th September 2012 at around 5pm, we set off: David Salle and Romain Etienvre, aboard our Formula 28 catamaran "www.multicoqueaventures.com", for an attempt on the record for sailing round the Ile aux Moines. Despite a moderate 15 knot westerly breeze, we brought the record down to 40 minutes and 7 seconds. We think it could easily be improved, aboard this boat, which is capable of top speeds of over 25 knots.

Hydroptere and Hydroptere 2, the search for partners

From the following Sail-World article

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Hydroptere,-Hydroptere-2---The-search-is-on-for-partners/104512

Hydroptere, Alain Thébault’s 'flying boat', is seeking partners to finance the Transpacific record attempt this summer and the launch in 2015 of a second generation Hydroptere designed to beat the North Atlantic record.

Since its double world absolute sailing speed record in 2009 (taken over by kitesurfers and recently by the Australian Paul Larsen) Hydroptere changed direction to head towards offshore challenges. 'Since 2009 we were the world fastest Formula 1 of the seas but our initial dream with Eric Tabarly was to test the concept offshore. In 2010, we decided to turn the F1 into a 4x4 of the seas to show that it was also possible to fly over the oceans,' said Alain Thébault, skipper and designer of Hydroptere.

read more here

'l’Hydroptère DCNS, Alain Thébault and his crew (Yves Parlier, Jean le Cam, Jacques Vincent, Luc Alphand) during the first series of trials on the Med before trying to beat the Pacific crossing record between Los Angeles and Honolulu next summer. La Ciotat in the Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France.' Christophe Launay © 

ETNZ and Luna Rossa have informal "race" off Auckland

A Sail-World article on ETNZ and Luna Rossa having an informal sail together in their AC72 catamarans.

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Americas-Cup:-First-AC72-Practice-Race-takes-place-in-Auckland/103941

Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa went training off Auckland this afternoon.

It was not so much a spectacle as an historic encounter as the two AC72 catamarans met on the water.

It was the first AC72 race – practice or otherwise – to take place. The south-westerly breeze never got above 12 knots and the yachts had no chance of stretching their legs and providing the action that America’s Cup fans had expected. gallery/first-race-between-ac72s’s pictures are here.

Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC72 was the first to be launched – on July 21 – and the team has been testing and training alone. With only 30 days of sailing allowed under America’s Cup rules until the end of January 2012, every day is precious.

read more here

Alan Rankin to attempt solo round Britain and Ireland on a Farrier F27 trimaran

Trade Winds wins 2012 Scottish Islands Three Peaks Race All Rounder Class. See blog

 

In summer 2013 Alan Rankin will undertake a solo singlehanded sailing challenge of the full circumnavigation of UK and Ireland. The charity challenge is targeted to raise £20,000 for Ocean Youth Trust Scotland, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson’s UK, British Heart Foundation and Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The challenge will utilise entirely renewable resources of: wind, wave, tidal and solar power along with food and drink sourced from sustainable producers in the UK.

The challenge will take Alan Rankin on a singlehanded sailing voyage from Ullapool on the North West coast of Scotland northwards to Muckle Flugga of the Shetland Isles and then south to the busy English Channel. From there Alan will continue passing the Fasnet rock, up the West Coast of Ireland before heading for St Kilda and returning around the northern tip of the Outer Hebrides to Ullapool. The voyage is 2,300 miles in some of the most challenging yet beautiful waters in the world.

In 2006 Alan became the first person to fully circumnavigate Scotland by boat and bike. Read more

Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible”
— Claude Thomas Bissell

 

Hydroptere project loses support of major sponsor DCNS

From the following bymnews article

http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=111396

France. DCNS and Hydroptere end partnership

Wednesday, 07 November 2012

French naval defense group DCNS stops its support towards Hydroptere's oceanic program. Alain Thébault's hydrofoil trimaran, originally set to attempt the Transpac record this summer, had to post-pone her departure due to the absence of favorable weather windows. This new calendar doesn't meet with the group's expectations which does not have a market in the US.

Alain Thébault and his team thank DCNS whose support helped launch the 'flying boat' oceanic campaign. The team also acknowledges the work done by the group's engineers and by all those who have supported the project over the year.

"We are surprised and obviously disappointed but we remain hopeful. This is the first time a hydrofoiler attempts an ocean record. DCNS gave us the means to start the adventure and we will go all the way. The project demonstrated it can generate a great enthusiasm and we hope that this pioneering challenge, in which we strongly believe, will find new support in France or abroad", says Alain Thébault.

Supported by the Consul General of France in San Francisco, sailors Alain Thébault, Jacques Vincent, Jean Le Cam and Yves Parlier will create "Hydroptere Pacific", a Californian structure with the objective of encouraging potential American partners to be part of this adventure.

 

 

Record chasing season finished for Hydroptere.ch on Lake Geneva

The experimental hydrofoil catamaran Hydroptère.ch has concluded its record-chasing 2012 season. Its results were exceptional, including one of the best times of all times on the Ruban Bleu course despite adverse weather conditions.

l’Hydroptère.ch, the revolutionary hydrofoil catamaran developed by the Hydros design team in Lausanne, concluded its record-chasing campaign at the end of a season packed full of experiences and achievements.

In 2012, l’Hydroptère.ch achieved the best times for all the records on Lake Geneva: hour, kilometer and Ruban Bleu (Bol d’Or course). It also beat the absolute one-hour record on July 19 with an average speed of 25.63 knots. l’Hydroptère.ch also posted the year's best time on the Ruban Bleu course on July 11 in five hours 11 minutes 46 seconds, beating its own record (from 2011) by 22 minutes, although still 18 minutes off the record itself.

'We are proud of these achievements', says Daniel Schmaeh, helmsman of l’Hydroptère.ch. 'Our overall performance has been excellent as we progressed on all fronts: we validated the changes to the boat's structure, progressed as a team, and improved our understanding of how hydrofoils work. On the other hand, the weather conditions proved capricious; there was hardly ever any bise (northern wind) and we feel there is unfinished business as the Ruban Bleu was denied us. We will resume our assault on the record next year; we know it's within our grasp.'

The l’Hydroptère.ch team, comprising Daniel Schmaeh, Jérémie Lagarrigue, Stéphane Dyen, Gaël Ledoux and Guillaume Coyon made no less than nine attempts this season, trying their luck in sometimes adverse conditions. 'These attempts allowed us to strengthen the team, and improve the handling of the boat and our knowledge of Lake Geneva', says Jérémie Lagarrigue, head of the Hydros project. 'We also greatly improved the yacht's performance.'

more of the sailworld article here

Banque Populaire V in the 2011 Fastnet Race

A huge credit to the UK sailing scene is the integration of ocean racing multihulls into large offshore races.  This video shows the all conquering record machine Banque Populaire V in the 2011 Fastnet race in which they set a new course and outright record of 1day 8hrs 48minutes.

Thomas Coville, new singlehanded reference time for the Marseille to Carthage singlehanded record

New passage record set by Thomas Coville on the maxi trimaran "Sodebo" for the Singlehanded multihull record on the Marseille to Carthage route.

http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=111014

 

Record: Marseille to Carthage. Singlehanded.

Yacht: Sodebo II 102 ft Trimaran.

Name: Thomas Coville FRA

Dates: 12^th to 13^th September 2012.

Start time: 12; 46; 36 UTC on 12/09/12

Finish time: 14; 25; 12 UTC on 13/09/12

Elapsed time: 25hours 38minutes 36seconds

Distance: 455NM

Average speed: 17.77 kts

Comments: Previous record: “Group Bel”, Kito de Pavant, FRA, Jun 09, 1d 21h 20m 29s

--
John Reed
Secretary to the WSSR Council

 

Sailing proa to attempt circumnavigation

The large sailing Proa Gaias Dream is to attempt a circumnavigation.  Certainly an interesting project the craft is a 71' Pacific proa completely constructed out of Australian plantation timber. It has a cargo capacity of about 6 tonnes and a 26 knot theoretical top speed.  I've attached some videos of the boat shunting and sailing.  The website includes a tracker for the boat which will be regularly updated when they start their attempt.

Gaiasdream website