Die Rückkehr des Pete Goss

Wer kennt ihn nicht, seid dem Desaster mit der TEAM PHILIPS. Lange Zeit war es sehr ruhig um Pete Goss, aber jetzt will er anscheinend wieder zurück ins Regattageschehen.

Er hat sich mit seinem Teamkameraden Paul Larsen für das 2006 Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Yacht Race. Und in alter Manier für das Zerbrechliche wird er auf einem SEACART 30 starten, einem 9 m langen Leichtbau-Trimaran. Das Boot ist komplett aus Kohlefaser gebaut und beschleunigt seine 950 kg mit einem gut 15 m hohen Rigg.

Top Cat Basilica

Team Basilica from Britain wrapped up a triumphant week in the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix series with three podium finishes, to win the Rio trophy after a challenging last day's racing in Guanabara Bay.

Faced with tricky, shifting winds which never rose above ten knots, helmsman Alister Richardson steered Basilica to a win in the second race, sandwiched between a second and a third, which they competed after repairing a broken winch.

Motorola-CHR won the final race to finish 23 points behind Basilica. According to skipper Conrad Humphreys, performances across the fleet were improving as the crews became more familiar with the boats.

Tommy Hilfiger, helmed by Randy Smyth (USA), finished third place overall in Rio, which was good enough to maintain first place in the overall rankings for the Grand Prix Series. Basilica moves up to second place overall and Motorola-CHR is one point behind in third.

The Volvo Extreme 40 was developed as a strict one-design catamaran for high speed racing both inshore and in short offshore regattas. It was created by dual Olympic medallist Mitch Booth and designed by Olympic Gold Medal winner Yves Loday.

The next leg of the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix Series will take place Baltimore, USA, from the 28 April-3 May.

Final Results (after 16 races)
1. Basilica 133 pts, Alister Richardson (GBR), James Grant (GBR), Pete Greenhalgh (GBR), Jonathan Taylor (GBR)
2. Motorola - CHR 110 pts, Leigh McMillan (GBR), Conrad Humphreys (GBR), Will Howden (GBR), Hamish Oliphant (GBR)
3. Tommy Hilfiger 98 pts, Randy Smyth (USA), Jonathan Farrar (USA), Stan Schreyer (USA), Juliano Viana (BRA)
4. Holmatro 96 pts, Mitch Booth (AUS), Taylor Booth (AUS), Daan Koene (NED), Herbert Dercksen (NED)
5. Volvo Ocean Race 91 pts, Diogo Cayolla (POR), Gregg Homann (AUS) & various guests including; Emma Westmacott (GBR), Roberto Bermudez (ESP), Chris Nicholson (AUS), Dirk Neumann (NED), Eduardo Pinedo (BRA), Clinio Freitas (BRA), Marco Grael (BRA), Mauricio Santa Cruz (BRA),

Overall Series Rankings (after two events)
1st Tommy Hilfiger 16 pts
2nd Basilica 14 pts
3rd Motorola - CHR 13 pts
4th Volvo Ocean Race 12 pts
5th Holmatro 11 pts

Neues von Steve Fossett

PDQ's neuer 41 Fuss Motor-Kat

Wie schon lange erwartet, wird PDQ in Kürze den neuen 41 Fuss Motor-Katamaran auf den Markt bringen. Nach den großen Erfolgen der kleinen PDQ 34 war dieser Schritt zwangsläufig, um die Palette zu erweitern.

Die PDQ 41 biete u.a. eine Eignerkabine auf Decksebene, mit einem Kingsize-Bett, um das man herumgehen! kann. Die Bordfrau wird sich bedanken. Weiterhin ist ein zweiter Gästewaschraum vorhanden und als Krönung kann man sich das Dinner mit einer zweiten Pantry auf der Flybridge zubereiten. So verliert man auch beim Kochen nicht den Überblick.

Elsewhere in Hongkong ...

Last week Ellen Macarthur's 60' trimaran, B&Q, arrived in Hong Kong. The 10,000-mile delivery from Southampton to Hong Kong, took the CMA CGM container ship the 'Bizet' 23 days to complete.

B&Q took up temporary residence at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. 'It's a tough call taking B&Q visiting,' said Tessa Pelly, Operations Manager of Ocean Challenges. 'There are plenty of places that can accommodate a 60' yacht, but not when the boat is nearly 60' wide as well.'

B&Q left Hong Kong Monday for Yokohama, Japan, where Ellen Macarthur will join ship and take off on the first leg of the Asian Record Circuit. The declared objective of the ARC is to establish a series of 12 new crewed record times between principal ports in Japan, South Korea, the PRC, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. This is a first-of-its-kind for a major sailing campaign to take to these waters with the aim of setting benchmark times that can be challenged in the future by other sailors.

Right now there seems to be a craze for setting records sweeping across mainland China - annual sales of the Guinness Book of Records rose to 30,000 copies last year since it was first published in Mandarin in the late 1990s. Some of the records being set in China may be slightly bizarre - the longest karaoke session, the world's tallest building made of flowers or the most people brushing their teeth at one venue - but this passion for setting records is believed to be a sign of mainland China's growing prosperity. Mainland Chinese people now lead more comfortable lives, have more leisure time and, as a result, more time to follow their own dreams.

Quite what China will make of Ellen and her record-breaking trimaran, in a country where sailing is hardly developed, remains to be seen. But one thing is certain, the fact that Ellen, the fastest sailor to circumnavigate the globe non-stop, is female may not surprise them. In sport, female Chinese athletes are leading the way. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where 26 national teams had no female participants, 199 of mainland China's 309 competitors were women. At Sydney 2000, 65% of the mainland Chinese team were female.

Asian Record Circuit: proposed dates and route 25 March

1 April - 2006 Record 1Yokohama, Japan to Jeju Island, South Korea: Target: 4 days, 18 hours
Record 2: Jeju Island, South Korea to Dalian, China: Target: 2 days 5 hours
Record 3: Total time Yokohama, Japan to Dalian, China: Target: 7 days, 1 hour
5-6 April 2006 - Record 4: Dalian to Qingdao, China: Target: 1 day, 10 hours
9-11 April 2006 - Record 5: Qingdao to Shanghai, China: Target: 1 day, 15 hours
16-18 April 2006 - Record 6: Shanghai to T'ai-pei, Taiwan: Target: 3 days
21-23 April 2006 - Record 7: T'ai-pei, Taiwan to Hong Kong SAR: Target: 2 days, 11 hours
From 1st May 2006 - Record 8: Hong Kong SAR to Sanya (Hainan Island) China: Target: 1 day, 21 hours
Record 9: Sanya, China to Nah Trang, Vietnam: Target: 1 day, 21 hours
Record 10: Nah Trang, Vietnam to Terengganu, Malaysia: Target: 3 days
Record 11: Total time Hong Kong to Terengganu, Malaysia: Target: 6 days, 17 hours
Record 12: Terengganu, Malaysia to Singapore: Target: 1 day, 11 hours