TP52 - Little Cup - Laser Mark II sail - Few top sailors in Qingdao

by Dan Ibsen on 17 Sep 2015 2015 TP52 Super Series – has their last event of five in Cascais, Portugal, which is deciding the overall ranking of the year and the ”Best of 5 events trophy”.

With a good start in Cascais, Azzurra is holding on to her leadership overall in the 52 Super Series 2015 with just a few races to go before the end of the Series, which closes with the end of the Cascais Cup on Sunday.

Little America's Cup – is right now being sailed at Lake Geneva and it’s the 27th edition of the Little Cup, which during all time have been sailed in C-class catamarans, with the first wing sails being used already in the 1970’s.

Defending champions Franck Cammas and Louis Viat (Groupama C) is dominating the series, demonstrating the development work undertaken by Groupama C since winning the wingsailed foiling catamarans in Falmouth in 2013.

Laser Class announces new Standard Mark II sail legal from November 1 - The Int. Laser Class Association (ILCA) has announced the release of a completely new class-legal design for the Laser standard rig sail. The release marks the first time in over 40 years that the Laser sail design has been substantially updated. The objective of the design project for the Mark II was to create a sail with equal performance to the existing sail, but with better durability.

The new sail will be available worldwide by early 2016, but it has been agreed with ISAF that the Mark II sail will not be used in the 2016 Olympic Games or any Olympic country qualifying events for 2015 or 2016. The use of the sail will be controlled by the Notice of Race for each event until after the 2016 games. After that time, the Mark II will be allowed in all ILCA sanctioned regattas along with the original standard rig sail.

Very few top sailors at ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao – The World Cup in Qingdao have got underway in tricky and challenging conditions, where Qingdao’s strong tide, which peaked at 2 m/s, as well as the variable southerly breeze that ranged from 5-15 knots, put the 320 sailors and 197 boats from 32 nations to task with plenty of ups and downs.

Most of the classes in Qingdao do not have attendance from many of the top sailors, and many fleets count low numbers compared to the three world cup events in the first half year of 2015. Largest fleets are with Laser M at 40 boats and Laser Radial W with 36 boats. Four classes - 470W, 49er, Finn and Nacra – have 10 or less boats, among those the 49er with only two boats ! No boats in 49erFX !

Out of the 197 boats there are only 30 boats from Europe and five boats from North & South America. So ISAF is still struggling making the World Cup events outside Europe and USA attractive to the top elite sailors in the Olympic Classes.

Follow the action in the TP52 Super Series, Little Americas Cup, World Cup Qingdao and more events at Sail-World.com

Good Sailing
Dan Ibsen
Sail-World Europe Editor