|
 WMR reps decided—Sailing News from the U.S. and Beyond
 | | Anna Tunnicliffe and her Team Maclaren hard at work © Jesus Renedo / Sofia Mapfre |
This week's big Olympic sailing news has been centered on the U.S. Olympic Team Qualifying Regatta, which just wrapped up in Weymouth, England, and which determined US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider's reps for the Women's Match Racing (WMR) event for this summer's Olympic Games. After several flights of tightly contested match racing, Anna Tunnicliffe and her Team Maclaren—consisting of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi—sailed away the winners, defeating Sally Barkow's Team 7 Match Race (Barkow, Elizabeth Kratzig Burnham and Alana O'Reilly).
'The US Olympic Trials is the hardest regatta to do in the world,' said Tunnicliffe, who already has an Olympic gold medal to her credit. 'Our team, Team Tulloch and [Team 7 Match Race] are three of the top 10 world teams,' said Tunnicliffe. 'Coming into the Games, we knew that whichever team won here is going to the Olympics and is going to win gold.' Get the full report, inside.
 | | Skipper Ken Read on the helm. Onboard PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG during leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Itajai, Brazil, to Miami, USA. (Credit: Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race) Amory Ross/Puma Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race© |
Meanwhile, in offshore news, the fight for line honors in Leg Six of the fully crewed, non-stop around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race is intense as Puma Ocean Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand (ENTZ), Telefonica and Groupama are all tightly clustered, despite the fact that the fleet has now been sailing for weeks. At the time of this writing, Puma Ocean Racing's Mar Mostro continued to lead the pack by a narrow margin over ENTZ after sailing an impeccable race, with just over 200 miles of tactically challenging, light-air sailing to go until the Miami finishing line. 'Battles on the ocean are hard,' reports Mar Mostro's skipper, Ken Read. 'Especially in super light air like what we have had out here the last few days. The chess match is long and painful and very often has stops and starts that stretch-out the agony. We are amongst it with Camper at this stage and there is a lot of runway left and tons of potholes along the way.'
Check out the full VOR report in this issue, and be sure to follow the website for the latest news as the fleet presses towards the Sunshine State.
 | | Star Worlds 2012 Pierrick Contin © |
Action is also hot at the ongoing Star Worlds, which are being held in Hyeres, France, the Laser Worlds, which are being held in Boltenhagen, Germany, as well as the 49er Worlds, which are taking place in Zadar, Croatia—be sure to check out the multimedia reports from these events, inside.
 | | Slingsby on the start line in Germany - Laser World Championships 2012 Nils Bergmann - Segelaction.de |
Teams competing in the Clipper Around the World Yacht Race recently transited the Panama Canal and are now in the Atlantic Ocean, and—also on the east coast—teams competing in the upcoming Newport-Bermuda Race are working hard to get certain documents in order for the May 15 deadline.
And finally, in industry news, Performance Sailcraft Australasia, the longtime Laser manufacturer for the Asia-Pacific market, has—with ISAF's blessing— acquired the Copyright and worldwide building and marketing rights to the one-person Byte and Byte CII dinghy from its designer and builder, Ian Bruce (now 78). 'I have built a great many boats of many kinds in my life time and have decided that I am really not needed to build any more!' reported Bruce. ‘I am delighted that the Byte is going into the Laser family, from whence it sprang, as PSA will do more with the boat and for the Class than I was ever able to do.'
VIM Sailing is the Bytes CII new North American manufacturer and distributor as we reported a few weeks ago, all part of the PSA changes afoot. And the Byte CII will be the new boat for some key US Sailing's event. Get the full story, inside.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
We are sending you this newsletter because you are already receiving an existing Sail-World newsletter or because we believe this will be of interest to you. If you like this newsletter, do nothing, we will send you regular news.
If you don't, its a single click to stop.
No, I don't need or want to read about US and World sailing news. Please don't send me another. 
|
