The latest edition of CNN Mainsail covers exclusively th Middlesea Race of Malta held in October. As always, the two-time Olympic Champion Shirley Robertson GBR moderates the magazine.
In the latest edition of the CNN-Sailing-Video-Magazine 'Mainsail', the five-time Olympic Medalist Ainslie GBR speaks about his way to success, interviewed by Shirley Robertson GBR (2x Olympic Champion). The 22-minute video is dedicated to the Olympic Classes World Championship in Aarhus (August 2018), with Ainslie GBR starting after 16:50.
The ISAF Casebook is not only a valuable tool for Umpires and Juries, but also for regatta sailors wanting to groove their racing rules' skills. This document, re-edited every four years, treats over 100 cases and can be downloaded in pdf format or be ordered as hard-copy at ISAF.
Over the next weekend, the Sport Film Festival will take place in Monaco. Among the invited productions is the 14-minutes' film about the round-the-world-record of the maxi-trimarans 'Banque Populaire V'.
The Velux 5 Oceans might only have five boats ready for next week's start (and hoping for a sixth to finish repairs in time), but so far more than 10,000 armchair skippers have signed up with Virtual Regatta for the virtual race. The possibility of winning cash prizes that total more than 10,000 Euros or nearly $14,000 surely helps. If you love sailing on your computer and want to compete against of thousands of other virtual skippers, this might be your ticket for the next few months. Fair warning: We have seen some pretty dedicated folks in other Virtual Regatta games, who have had multiple players on their team to man their vessel around the clock, so be prepared to put in some long hours if you want to be competitive. Sign up and get the briefing for the controls of boat and sails.
The Volvo Ocean Race Game attracted 220,000 players during the 2008-2009 race and will be back next time in an expanded version with improved technical and tactical elements and an in-port race feature. The new version also is expected to include advanced weather and routing options and integrated social media, i.e. Twitter. The game will also be playable on social networks and smart phones. The overall winner of the race game last time around was Dutch player Powerof7, whose hard work won him a Volvo C30. The report and a place to sign up for the newsletter.
Three days into the championship with six races counting and one discard, two US boats are on top of the interim standings at the J/24 Worlds in Malmö SWE. Tim Healey USA (10 pts.) who got a nice redress for a wrongfully assessed a BFD in Race 4 on Tuesday (a bullet, no less) added another 1-2 to his impressive score to extend the overall lead with Tony Parker USA (21) and Andrea Casale ITA (26) following on the other podium places. The forecast is finally promising better conditions, meaning wind without rain. The event site with report, results and photos.
Three-time Olympian and frequent SN contributor, Chris Rast, recently blogged about chemistry and the art of teamwork for racing sailors. Never mind that he’s likening it to building a gearbox, which seems to be an analogy they teach in business school theses days. It’s still a worthwhile read, If you are a skipper or someone who is frequently in the position of putting new teams together, this article will give you new overall perspective on this issue. And it will help you realize what it takes to integrate into a team and hopefully you will question some of your current practices.
“I was looking for some advice for our upcoming partnerships and I found myself talking to Vince Brun and David Hughes at North Sails in Point Loma,” says Chris Rast, a three-time Olympic campaigner and occasional Sailing news contributor. "In regards to how we should handle information sharing with our sparring partners (which would eventually be our competition at the Olympic Games), Vince's advice was simple. In his usual Brazilian accent he said: 'You hide, you loose.' It doesn't matter if you're in it for an Olympic Medal or preparing for a National Championship, if you need to fast track your learning curve then one of the best ways doing this is by working together with other teams.” Find out how on Chris Rast's 'Faster and Higher' blog.
Chris Rast, three-time Olympian and Sailing News columnist shares his insight on how to tame the locura that surrounds big events. At the 2008 Games in Quindao, he crewed for Tim Wadlow USA on the 49er. Early on, things weren’t going so well, so they needed to make adjustments:
On the starting line, you have done a great job creating a “hole” to leeward of you; i.e., space between you and the boat leeward of you, so that you can bear off and build some speed before the start, while remaining on starboard tack for some time after the gun. But there is one thing you can count on in the pre-start: if you build a great hole, someone will come and try to steal it! The key to defending your hole is to be a “pitbull” about it. This is no time to be a nice guy. Being “nice” will get you nothing but a reputation! You need to be prepared to aggressively defend your hole. One way is to post a lookout. Someone on your boat needs to be assigned the task of watching for potential attackers. Advance warning is the key to defending your hole. Read the whole story.
