Neues und Aktuelles April 2006


Multis at the heart of London

The opening event of the Multicup 60', the London-Alpes Maritimes race will get underway at 13:00 on Monday 8 May downstream of the Thames Tidal Barriers, after a parade beneath Tower Bridge.

Last season a link race between the multihulls' technical bases in Brittany and the Grands Prix in the Mediterranean was organised from Lorient to Nice. The intensity was extreme, with much chopping and changing of the leading positions, plenty of tricky weather situations, the withdrawal of Groupama-2 due to mast problems off Malta, and a fabulous final battle between Foncia and Gitana 11 off Nice for third place on the podium; reaching thirty knots with gennaker up and eventually won by Frédéric Le Peutrec with a gap of only twenty seconds after nine days at sea!

This year, with the creation of the Multicup 60', the route facing the six trimarans (Banque Populaire, Géant, Gitana 11, Gitana 12, Groupama-2, and Sopra Group) is an even more tactical one, involving as it does first going down the Thames, then crossing a small section of the North Sea before passing along the Channel and heading out into the Atlantic. These first six hundred miles in particular will be technically demanding for the six crew members on board each boat, as they will have to follow manoeuvres on the river with managing maritime traffic and sand banks as they round England, then take advantage of the sea currents and negotiate thermal breezes or frontal depressions before "de-channelling" and discovering a more open "battle area" in the Gulf of Gascony.

But after this spicy starter during which the navigators will be especially in demand and the crews will be tested physically, there will still remain over two thousand miles to sail amidst widely varying weather systems. The approach to Cape Finisterre, the north-westernmost tip of Spain, is renowned for its cyclothymic rhythm, where storms and windless zones alternate and anticyclonic beam winds are suddenly transformed into fickle and troublesome cyclonic winds. Not to mention the shipping lanes to watch, Portuguese fishermen to steer clear of, and the coastal effects of the Iberian cliffs.

After all this, the six trimarans will then have to dash into the narrows, in the shape of the Straits of Gibraltar, a passage which can play the part of tiebreaker by transforming a small advantage into a large gap, causing bunching, serving as a buffer zone or having a yo-yo effect. Last season, the multihulls all found themselves in a general assembly, in view of each other after over a thousand miles of racing.

The six trimarans, reunited with the water in April, have all undergone optimization work this winter. As the first confrontations at Port-La-Forêt in mid-April showed, Groupama-2 is fluent as ever, but the pressure behind is strong in the shape of Banque Populaire, Gitana 11 and Géant. Sopra Group seemed a shade under par, while Gitana 12 was not there.

Quelle: scuttlebutteurope


Parliers Rekordversuch geglückt: 597 nm/24h

Das WSSR Council hat den neuen Weltrekord von Yves Parlier bestätigt:
Record: Greatest distance sailed in 24 hours - up to 60 foot
Yacht: "Mediatis-Region Aquitane". Catamaran
Name: Yves Parlier and 5 crew
Dates: 9th/10th April 2006
Start time and position: 44 31.86'N; 1 29.28'W at 13.01 on 9/04/06
Finish time and position: 45 51.06'N; 15 31.20'W at 13.01 on the10/04/06
Distance sailed: 597.808 nm. rounded to 597.81nm.
Average speed: 24.91 kts

Der alte Rekord wurde von Laurent Bourgnon mit dem 60 ft Trimaran PRIMAGAZ gehalten, der 1994 540 nm zurücklegte. Dieser Rekord verbleibt aber nach wie vor als "Singlehanded, up to 60 foot 24 hour record" bestehen.


A Voyaging Canoe for Tikopia

At last, the new website for the \'Tikopian Canoe Project\' is finished and has gone out live! This is a project to give the people of the tiny Pacific islands of Tikopia and Anuta back independent sea transport, in the form of two seagoing sailing double canoes. The double canoes are designed by James Wharram Designs and are based on the original hull shape of the outrigger canoes built by the Tikopians and Anutans for hundreds of years. The canoes will be built in the Philippines and sailed 3000Nm to the islands, which lie at the Eastern end of the Solomons.
Tikopian Canoe Project
(Mehr dazu im nächsten Multihull Report

Parliers erneuter Rekordversuch

Der französische Segler Yves Parlier ist bei den letzten Vorbereitungen für neue Solo-Rekordversuche mit dem 60 ft langen Hydroplan-Katamaran. Dazu wird das bisher recht glücklose Boot nach den Kanarischen Inseln überführt.

Der innovative Katamaran "Médiatis Région Aquitaine" mit Parallelrigg der hauptsächlich von regionalen Sponsoren unterstützt wird, ist bei der 2004 Transat gescheitert und zuletzt bei Rekordversuchen nahe den Kanaren gekentert. Parlier erlitt dabei Verletzungen an der Wirbelsäule und an den Rippen, das Boot wurde dabei erheblich beschädigt.

Nach einer gründlichen Überholung und geringfügigen Änderungen folgen als nächstes mehrerer Versuchsfahrten von Parliers Basis in Frankreich aus. Später will Parlier dann die neuen Rekorde anpeilen. Sein Originalkommentar dazu

"In terms of pure speed, we have every confidence in the increased potential of Médiatis Région Aquitaine. It is now possible to sail easily at 30 knots average and we have the excitement of seeing the instruments flick into or pass 40 knots more and more often."

from Elaine Bunting's blog


Multi Cup 60

London - Nice, Trapani, Marseille, Portimao, Fecamp

As announced on December 9th , 2005 and January 31st, 2006, the starting line of the Multi Cup 60' 2006 will be based in London, May 8th. The first event of this new championship is an open sea crew-race from London to Nice on a new course. The first competitors are expected to reach Nice around may 15th.

5 boats have subscribed to the 2006 championship :
Banque Populaire (Pascal Bidegorry)
Géant (Michel Desjoyeaux)
Gitana 11 (Frédéric Le Peutrec)
Gitana 12 (Thierry Duprey du Vorsent)
Groupama (Franck Cammas)

The instructions of the first transoceanic race will be given on Friday April 7th 2006.

The Multi Cup 60' will be organized by the company Multi Cup SAS, specificly founded for this new event. Its CEO should be named in the next few days.

The name of the companies in charge of the electronic field and image production will be released to the media before April 21st.


Kingfisher 2 so gut wie verkauft

Die OC Group (Offshore Challenges, as was) ist am besten Weg den Maxi Katamaran Kingfisher 2 loszuwerden, wieCEO Mark Turner bestätigt. Der 110 Fuss Katamaran vewrlor im Februar im südlichen Ozean seinen Mast während Ellen MacArthur's verunglücktem Versuch den "Round-the-World" Rekord zu brechen. Seitdem lag das Boot "auf Eis", lange genug um sich den Spitznamen 'The Orange Lemon' einzuhandeln.

Als Käufer wird Baron Benjamin de Rothschild's Gitana Team gehandelt, dess Basis in La Trinité sur Mer in Frankreich liegt. Der Maxi-Kat soll den Rennstall vergrößern, der u.a. bereits den 60 ft Trimaran GITANA XI aufweist. Der Kat soll ein neues Rigg bekommen und nach einer gründlichen Überholung 2007 am Multihull-Race von Vannes (Frankreich) nach Island und zurück teilnehmen.


GERONIMO verläßt San Diego Richtung Hawaii

Kleiner Treppenwitz am Rande:
Der Maxi-Trimaran GERONIMO macht auf seinem Weg nach San Franzisco einen schnellen Schlenker nach Hawaii. Nicht um einen neuen Rekord zu erzielen, sondern um möglichst rasch die kalifornischen Gewässer zu verlassen. Andernfalls wären hohe Ordnungsstrafen wegen Umweltsünden fällig geworden.

© ALC/Rivacom

"However, as you move offshore beyond the three-mile limit, California's jurisdiction ceases, and the federal law eases up somewhat allowing some restricted dumping as you get farther away from the coast, based on the type of garbage, and the location of the dumping." Geronimo's infractions? Cigarette butts. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Complaints first surfaced in Australia where the boat put in for repairs, but she was gone before more than a few cartons' worth of filters were tossed in. The situation in San Diego had reportedly grown far more severe, with skipper Olivier de Kersauson reportedly flicking a lit cigarette directly at a Coast Guard officer giving him and his crew a warning. "That was the last straw", said a USCG official speaking off the record. "Those Frenchies can smoke all they want, this is a free country, but they can't toss the butts into my kids' drinking and swimming water. We're going to hit them with a $100 fine for EVERY cigarette butt we find within a 100 yard radius of that fatcat's floating Formula 1... this city is about to land one big windfall. Ha. Let them smoke that!"


Ellen MacArthur's asiatische Rekordrunde

Bisher aufgestellte Rekorde:

1. Yokohama-Jeju Island 5d 11h 10m 51s (906nm)
2. Jeju Island-Dalian 1d 15h 57m 28s (418nm)
3. The Manchu Record (Yokoham - Dalian) 7d 3h 18m 19s (1324nm)
4. The Marco Polo Record (Dalian - Qingdao) 1d 2m 53s (265nm)


Neues von Fountain Pajot

Neues von Fountain Pajot berichtet von einem höchst positiven ersten Quartal, an dem vor allem die neuste Kration die Mahé 36 mit 33 privaten Orders anteil hat.

Das neue Boot wurde auf der Pariser Boot Schau 2005 vorgestellt und die ersten Auslieferungen werden für den späten Sommer erwartet. Es wird in zwei verschiedenen Layouts angeboten und auch in einer neuen leichten Version mit Ausbau in Holz. Die Zwei-Kabinen-Version hat zwei getrennte Niedergänge und zwei Waschräume. Die Drei-Kabinen-Version hat zur Eignerkabine zusätzlich zwei Gästekabinen. Die Mahé 36 gibt ihr offizielles Debüt auf der Southampton Boat Show in diesem Jahr