A Big Week- Extreme Sailing, World Sailing Cup, Volvo finish and more

by . on 14 Dec 2014 Welcome to Sail-World.com’s New Zealand e-magazine for December 16, 2014

We wrap up a big week and weekend of racing.

Most of the action has been in Australia, with the Extreme Sailing Series finishing Sunday afternoon.

In this edition, we feature the video coverage from all three days racing. Emirates Team New Zealand were a last-minute no-show, officially because they wanted to focus on the 35th America's Cup. The reality is that with no word on the fate of the Qualifier Series, for which Auckland is bidding, and no decision yet on whether the NZ Government is willing to go again, the team is still running lean financially.

In the end the no-show made little difference to the results for the season with the team finishing fourth overall on season points.

On Saturday night, Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race was completed in Abu Dhabi. The win for Team Brunel (NED) and a third place for Leg 1 winner, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing means two things - the points table is wide open, with tie breakers being used to separate the top three boats. It also means that Peter Blake's record of winning all legs in a Round the World Race stands for yet another edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The event has clearly split into two groups, with Dongfeng, Team Brunel and Abu Dhabi OR having some extremely close and tense ocean racing. The others just don't seem to be on the pace. Whether they can rectify that situation remains to be seen. One would think that with a one design fleet and supplied sails that there should be little real difference in performance, but we have seen the same three boats on the podium in two finishes, now.

No news of Team Vestas Wind's fate. Sail-World spent 80 minutes with skipper Chris Nicholson on Thursday, and we expect to publish a three part story on the causes of the crash into the reef, what happened during the abandonment of the boat and the recovery. We hope to publish early next week. Suffice to say any decision on whether a new boat is possible won't be made until later this month. But as Nicholson told us, every day that goes by reduces their chances.

All parties have said that the situation is very tight logistically. At a media conference last week, we were told that the boat was owned by Volvo Ocean Race, leased by Team Vestas Wind and that the loss was covered by insurance. Vestas, a lead sponsor, were at pains to emphasis that the loss had no financial effect on the company, and they were committed to staying in the race.

The ISAF World Sailing Cup Melbourne finished Sunday. Top New Zealand performance came in the two person SKUD18, with Paralympians Tim Dempsey and Gemma Fletcher taking the Silver medal in a ten boat fleet from four countries. New Zealand's only other medal came in the Mens Laser class with Michel Bullot winning a Bronze medal ahead of compatriots Andrew Maloney and Sam Meech.

The regatta was dominated by Australian crews. While organizers are always keen to point to the number of countries competing the fact is that the European countries are appalling travelers Down Under, in fact anywhere that involves a bit of effort.

Next year the ISAF World Sailing Cup is supposed to step up several clicks, as the ISAF tries to implement a competition that is similar in status for between Olympic events, similar to that run by other sports. But for all the talk in the ISAF Council halls, the members need only look across the table to see the real cause, which is simply that the Europeans won't go anywhere that is not a drive up regatta for them.

On Thursday, the long-awaited decision was handed down by the Court for Arbitration for Sport on the appeal by Oracle Team USA crew member Dirk de Ridder. The Lausanne based Court upheld the findings of the international Jury as to whether de Ridder was involved in changing the measurement status of three AC45's used in four America's Cup World Series regattas. He did however have his suspension chopped from three years to 18 months - and will be able to compete in sailing races.

We have a full report in this edition.

>Stay tuned to www.sail-world.com for all the latest sailing and racing news.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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