Posts Tagged ‘New Zealand’

After months and months of wrangling in the US courts it’s not the barristers or the bickerings of the billionaires that is delaying the start of the first leg of the America’s Cup – no and you guessed it – it is the weather. The three race series was supposed to have started on Monday but there was no wind. It was then scheduled for Wednesday but there was too much wind and the waves were too big.

Alinghi V and USA 17 are in Valencia, Spain – ready and waiting to race – photo courtesy of George Johns – Alinghi

The racing is now scheduled to start tomorrow – weather permitting – and will consist of possibly 3 races – the third race only being necessary if both boats win one of the first legs.

The 33rd America’s Cup is a Deed of Gift Match to be decided over the three races across two course types. Races 1 and 3 will be contested over a simple upwind-downwind loop totalling 40 miles, whilst Race 2 will be 39 miles long and around an equilateral triangle course comprising a 13 mile beat and two 13 miles reaches.

Of course we know there are only two contestants – the defender Alinghi V is racing under the ‘colours’ of the Societe Nautique de Geneve and is financed by the billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli – the challenger is  USA 17 which is financed by Larry Ellison of Oracle fame and BMW under the ‘colours’ of the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

Both these men are very determined and the stories that swirl around about both protagonists if printed would no doubt land us with a summons to court – so litigious have they become. What we can say is that what we would rather see is a mutual consent event with teams from other countries such as New Zealand, Great Britain, Italy, France and Australia making entries.

As a Deed of Gift Match it has come down to two mega rich individuals who are behaving in a spoilt manner and we believe this is detracting from the charm of the sport’s oldest event.

Ernesto Bertarelli – photo courtesy of Ivo Rovira – Alinghi

Larry Ellison – photo courtesy of Bay Area Sports Guy

Of course the boats have been in Valencia for a while now and not surprisingly there have been some sharp lenses out on the water watching the action. Even if you disagree with the Deed of Gift Match format you will have to agree that the action is going to be very exciting – just imagine the jostling for position at the start line – the boats will hear a 6 minute warning before crossing the start line and then going hell for leather. All 90 feet of them attaining speeds in excess of 30 knots – wow it will be fun to watch.

All we can say is good luck to both teams, we hope there are no accidents and for goodness sake get on with the racing – at the end of the day it is only a sports event.

The action showing both boats in action comes from SailingNewsTV

With relative ease the Italian team Azzurra, skippered by Francesco Bruni, brushed aside the challenge of the New Zealand team to win the Louis Vuitton Trophy off of the Nice coast at the weekend.

They had won their place in the final after defeating the British TeamOrigin in Saturday’s second semi final. The confident Emirates NZ team, skippered by Dean Barker had earlier beaten the Russian team Synergy to claim the right to sail in the final.

The action from the semi finals can be seen in this video from louisvuittontrophytv

On the website for the regatta, the link for which follows – http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com/home/ – Azzurra is described as a collaboration between Yacht Club Costa Smeralda whose president is HH The Aga Khan. The crew is made of of a menage of experienced sailors and young Italian racing yachtsmen with Tommaso Chieffi as senior tactician.

Unfortunately there is no video of the final on general release but from the reports on the website the Italians were able to command the waters winning the first two races meaning the third race did not have to be sailed.

But the race was not without mishap for the Italians – as they came to the top of the second beat in the second race the mid-bowman fell overboard but was hauled back on board and the yacht lost no time.

A terrific result for the Italian team – our most sincere congratulations. Below they can be seen in action.

There are eight teams entered and they include an international mix with the United States, Great Britain, France, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Germany,  Russia and Italy all represented.

The competition started on September 7th in the Bay of Angels on the Cote d’Azur in the south of France. Due to the deep waters of the Bay des Angels, racing for the Louis Vuitton Trophy at Nice Côte d’Azur takes place a few hundred meters from the shore and against the backdrop of the Alps, which plunge at different points straight into the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. A compelling setting.

Winds from the north in the morning of between 6 and 10 knots are the norm and these generally shift to the southeast or southwest in the afternoon and can build up to 15 knots.

Stage 1 is a round robin for all eight teams. Up to four races per day are scheduled through the conclusion of the round robin and will last no longer than one hour in duration.

Here is some action from the first round kindly provided by louisvuittontrophytv

After the first round robin it was the Emirates Team New Zealand who shared joint first place with Azzurra (Italy) both on 6 points.

Stage 2 is a knockout series designed to allow participants to keep sailing as long as possible.

Stage 3 is the knockout semifinals and final. The racing is now drawing to a conclusion with the semi finals having just started. In the first semi final the Italian team Azzurra defeated the British team: the Italian crew played the right side of the course on the first upwind leg and led by 9 seconds at the windward mark.

The British crew tacked to starboard to leeward of Azzurra but the Italians did a wonderful job and increased their lead to 27 seconds at the leeward gate, and then protected the right side of the second upwind leg to increase its lead to 1:16 beginning the run to the finish. The wind lessened throughout this match, from a high of 9 knots to less than 5 at the finish.

BMW Oracle will be the next match up against the inexperienced French team TFS-Pages Jaunes, then the Russian team Synergy sail against Emirates Team NZ – who on the form to date are the team to beat – and finally we will see the Swedish team Artemis take on the host team, All4one, which is a combined French/German entry.

Here’s some action from the same source from round 2.

With only three days left of competition the semi finals will come thick and fast – we will keep you posted and should you wish to visit the Louis Vuitton website click the link here  http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com/home/

All of this is of course the precursor of the America’s Cup – have you bought your tickets yet for Ras Al Khaimah – we hope not – more about that another day.

Now this is not your traditional ‘How To’ blog – for this is a very extreme ‘How To’ method for catching a marlin.

You see there is this bloke called Matt Watson – who perhaps not very surprisingly comes from New Zealand, yes he’s a Kiwi, who is a fisherman extraordinaire. Just to fill you in he’s a man who has probably caught on line, or otherwise, just about every fish known to man.

And when it comes to marlin Watson must hold some kind of record – he has caught on line over one thousand one hundred marlin. Of these only nine have been killed, Watson believes in taking fish for the pot but otherwise he will catch and release.

 But with that number of marlin caught on line Watson was kind of getting a bit bored. Problem………………

 Photo courtesy of Richard Carter  – a gannet diving for fish at Moelfre in Wales

 ……answer – let nature inspire you in ‘how to’ do something. Enter morus bassanus, see photo above, perhaps more commonly known as the gannet.

Gannets feed on fish, which they catch by diving into the water, sometimes from a great height; a network of air sacs under the skin helps cushion the impact of the dive.

Watson would attempt to behave like a gannet by diving from a helicopter over a marlin which was swimming in the ocean minding its own business and grab hold of the marlin.

No walk in the park but after several attempts over many months this is what he was able to do and in the video below from jbbremerton you can see the extraordinary footage of how Watson gave a marlin the shock of his life when ‘Gannet Watson’ dropped in!

Certainly an extreme way to catch a fish.

Cardrona, on New Zealand’s South Island and an hour’s drive from Queenstown, has one of the very few halfpipe’s open at this time of year… and the world’s best snowboarders and skiers are taking advantage of it as they train in the lead up to Vancouver 2010.

It has had the most epic season with record amounts of snow, record number of visitors and Olympic Medalist Shaun White (USA) making history in the pipe and establishng its position as one of the top favourite resorts for winter extreme sports.

Cardrona was coming to the end of its season when they were approached by national teams from all over the world looking for a training facility during October.  They were happy to oblige and retained the services of John Melville, Cardrona’s Parks & Pipes manager. The pipe camp began on the 5^th October and will continue through to the 24^th October.

Shaun White (USA) flew back to New Zealand specifically for the first week of the private Pre-Olympic Pipe Camp and was grateful for the training opportunity. “I had a great time, it’s awesome to be able to rely on a mountain to have great terrain during the summer time when there’s no snow in the U.S,” he said.

The Japanese national team is bringing in a 900kg inflatable stunt bag this week (the Bag Jump) and with the support of the park crew will build this into the snow to practice double cork and spin combinations that are the emerging standard in competitions.

Although there is still 135cm on the upper slopes and 65cm on the lower ones, this resort is now officially closed for the season.

Enjoy this  video (caryv1) from the 5 Star Burton New Zealand Open at Cardrona Alpine Resort, New Zealand in August 2009… the video ends with some bold and adventurous spirits pushing the boundaries of what one can do with a snowboard…

Photo courtesy of Carlo Borlenghi – Alinghi

So here she is – the defender for the 33rd Americas Cup – to be held just off the coast of the United Arab Emirates at Ras Al Khaimah in February of next year – Alinghi 5. Team president, Ernesto Bertarelli, who is Italian by birth and moved to Switzerland in 1977, is a successful and passionate sailor who has raced at the highest level for most of his life,  is 100% committed to retaining the trophy with Alinghi 5.

But first a little history which goes some way to explaing why The Americas Cup is so special – thanks to Hamish Ross for this insight.

‘The America’s Cup is a symbol of yachting supremacy. Winning the America’s Cup is one of the most difficult sporting accomplishments possible.

The Cup itself was made in 1848 by Garrards of London who were, at the time, the Royal Jewellers. The Cup was one of several identical cups made at the time. It languished at Garrards, unsold, for several years until it was purchased by the Royal Yacht Squadron as a trophy for a special race held in the year of the Great Exhibition of 1851 held in London. Now, it is a priceless sporting treasure.

A syndicate of 5 members of the New York Yacht Club built and sailed a schooner they called America to Britain where it entered the Royal Yacht Squadron’s race which was open to all nations but in fact was only raced by America and other yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron. America convincingly won the race and took the Cup home to New York amongst great acclaim’……..they then continuously held the cup for 132 years until 1983.

Since then, besides the American team who held the trophy from 1987 to 1995 it has been won by 4 other nations – Australia, New Zealand, Italy and now Switzerland.

The Swiss won The Americas Cup in 2003, defended it again in 2007 against a Kiwi challenge and will face the challenge of the Golen Gate Yacht Club in 2010 – Larry Ellison will do all he can with USA to bring the cup home.

Alinghi 5

We wrote about BOR90 – or USA – as she is now called – in a previous blog. This is what she is challenging.

Alinghi 5 is a 90ft multihull with a beam comparable to the width of two tennis courts set side by side and a mast that towers some 17 stories high. The boat was launched on the 8 July and underwent its maiden sail on the 20 July on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

On the 7 August, the catamaran was transported by helicopter from its home port of Lake Geneva to a temporary training base in Genoa, Italy from where it was reported in early September that she had suffered a structural failure. We understand that she is now in transit to RAK where trials and testing will continue.

In the video from AdonnanteTv below you can see she is a very fast boat – the challenge has been made, is the defender ready?