The incident occurred during a straightforward collision avoidance manoeuvre. "We had a port and starboard, us on port them on starboard," explained SEB skipper Gunnar Krantz. "We tried to duck them and missed the duck and touched them on the port aft corner with our bow. And made our 720 and continued racing."
Krantz continued : "The problem was probably miscommunication maybe"
One of the fundamental rules of road in sailing or yacht racing is that when two boats are on a collision course the boat on port tack (with the wind coming over the left side of the boat) must give way to another sailing yacht on starboard tack. While the boat on starboard must hold her course, the helmsman on the port tack boat has two options - to try cross in front of the other boat without forcing the other boat to alter course, otherwise they must bear away and ’duck the transom’ of the other boat. The Racing Rules of Sailing and the sailing instructions for the Volvo Ocean Race provide a way to exonerate after such an incident by completing a 720-degree turn with the yacht. The rules also say, that a yacht that causes serious damage through her breach of the rules shall retire.
SEB was travelling at around eight to nine knots when her bow hit illbruck. Illbruck’s skipper John Kostecki said that the collision was roughly one metre forward from the transom and fortunately because it was on their leeward side, all the crew were on the opposite side of the boat, so no one was hurt.
The impact resulted in a hole, the "size of your fist" in illbruck’s hull. The Swedish boat’s stem then scraped down the hull ripping out the aftstanchion that holds illbruck’s guardrails. "It was pretty surprising," Kostecki went on. "It was 13 knots of wind and we had jibs up so it wasn’t like the big overlapping Code Zero where you couldn’t see to leeward. The visibility was good. I don’t know - they just mistimed it I guess and hit us."
John Kostecki said that they were able to repair the hole before dark last night and will make further repairs this morning. The repairs cost them little in distance, other than the weight penalty of having 2-3 people down to leeward for the time it took to make the repairs.
Since the start of the leg in Rio the racing has developed as close as ever. After beating into light headwinds along the Brazilian coast on a very narrow track towards Cape Frio, News Corp was the only yacht to tack right at the Cape and subsequently moved from last to first. The other yachts expect to get a right hand wind shift further to the east and regain what was lost to News Corp.
11th Hour Racing Team has won The Ocean Race 2022-23, the world’s longest and toughest team sporting event - the first time a US team has won in the 50-year history of the Race.
The next edition of The Ocean Race, scheduled to start from Alicante, Spain in October 2021, will visit 10 international cities, including the start port and the Grand Finale finish in Genoa, Italy in the summer of 2022.
The latest edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain in October 2017 and finished in The Hague in the Netherlands in June 2018, will be remembered as the closest in race history, as well as a record-breaking event on many levels.
Dongfeng Race Team has won the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 in the closest finish in race history.
Skipper Charles Caudrelier led his team to victory on the final leg of the race, a 970-mile sprint from Gothenburg, Sweden to The Hague.
Incredibly, it marked the first leg win for the team — it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Charlie Enright’s Vestas 11th Hour Racing showed great patience and sailed a clean race for a victory in the Gothenburg In-Port Race on Sunday.
But it was Xabi Fernández’s MAPFRE team who rode a third place finish on Sunday to win the overall In-Port Race Series, sailing 11 points clear of their closest pursuers, Dongfeng Race Team.
With (…)
The scientific research, using data collected by Race team ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’, identified over three million micro plastic particles per square kilometre of ocean.
The sub-surface data on micro plastic pollution levels was collected using a state-of-the-art instrument on board their Volvo Ocean 65 racing yacht.
The CNBPP will organize from May 1st to 5th the second edition of the Select 650. This race did take the place of the 300 miles of Concarneau this year. The minis and their single handing skippers will leave again La Baule for a 300 miles long course away form the coast of South Brittany.
Le CNBPP a programmé pour sa saison 2002 une deuxième édition de la Select 650. Les minis menés en solitaire prendront donc à nouveau le départ d’une course de 300 milles environ au départ de La Baule. Cette course se déroulera du 1er au 5 mai prochain.
Parti le 19 septembre dernier de Manhattan, le trimaran de 53 pieds Great American II vient d’arriver en Australie. Il a franchit la ligne d’arrivée mouillée devant le Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Il était 13h29 mardi après midi (heure australienne).
A finish gun fired from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria at 1:29 PM today signaled a new sailing record from New York City to Melbourne. The 53-foot trimaran Great American II completed the 15,000-mile voyage to Australia in 68 days 10 hours 7 minutes 52 seconds, breaking a record that had stood for 146 years.
The SeaSailSurfer of the month has won the two-handed transatlantic from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia. He is from Switzerland and is nearly 33 years old : Stève Ravussin was Franck Cammas crew aboard the 60’ trimaran Groupama.
Le SeaSailSurfer du mois s’est illustré entre Le Havre et Salvador de Bahia. Il s’agit du Suisse Stève Ravussin, vainqueur au coté de Franck Cammas de la Transat Jacques Vabre dans la catégorie des monocoques.
FRA 46 et NZL 32 en plein circling devant l’île de Groix. Photo : Ch.Guigueno
Samedi 24 novembre, dans le petit Solent breton qui sépare Lorient de l’île de Groix, s’est déroulé le dernier entraînement de l’année des deux Class America français, FRA 46 et NZL 32. Les deux bateaux, l’ex-6e Sens, demi-finaliste de la Louis Vuitton Cup 1999 et Black Magic, vainqueur de la Cup 1995, ne reverront la mer qu’en mars 2002 avec (…)
Sailors worldwide will be able to keep up with the latest sailing news with CNN’s new TV programme Inside Sailing starting this Sunday the 25th November at 2030 GMT.
Course au Large était un magazine de l’époque des maxi-multicoques. Édité par l’Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, il était le pendant français du britannique Seahorse, le magazine du RORC. Course au Large avait terminé sa carrière sous un grand format illisible.
The Transat Jacques Vabre 2001 was the last event to count in the biennial FICO-LACOSTE 2001 World Championships, for skipper, crews and sponsors alike, and the results of this race have finally determined the winners, who will be presented with their titles on the 7th December in Paris, at the
official Awards Ceremony.