The Longtze European Tour was in Deauville a few days ago and raced in high-wind conditions. Boy, have a look at this video. The boats are planning all the time, and are so maneuverable, it seems they are just playing a tagging game with each other. I’d love to get on board on one of those!
Is the ISAF watching this and considering as a replacement for the Tornado?
Alex Thomson’s Open 60 Hugo Boss is back in the water, and it looks like Alex has found himself a new toy to take along those long trips round the world. He tried a Carafino “Hydromatic” board, a kitesurfing board with a foil underneath.
“The conditions were perfect with good breeze and sunshine adding to the feel good factor on the day. I haven’t been ‘foiling’ before but I loved it. It’s pretty extreme – at a certain speed the hull is lifted above the water and the craft skims along on the hydrofoils at great speeds. It’s like snowboarding, just on water,” explained Alex.
Alex clearly enjoyed himself in the Solent. He plans to take part in this year’s Fastnet and Transat Jacque Vabres races.
Wild Oats XI won this year’s edition of the Sydney - Hobart race for the forth time in a row. Never before in the history of this 628 mile ocean classic has a yacht achieved this.
Although Wild Oats made it very clear that they absolutely wanted to win the Sydney-Hobart this year, the race didn’t start extremely well for skipper Mark Richards. A torn spinnaker soon after the start, a close encounter with a two-meter long shark and the fierce competition by Skandia didn’t make things easy for the maxi’s crew.
By finishing after 1 day, 20 hours and 34 minutes, Wild Oats was just under two hours too late to break their own record-time which they established in the 2005 race. Although they now hold the record of the most consecutive wins and the record-time, they still need a fews years to beat the Morna/Kurrewa IV record. Morna managed to win the race seven times (under two different owners and two different names). If anyone will ever be able to break that record, Wild Oats will be it!
