Weekly Sailing News Summary

Summary for w/b - 17 Jan, 2006 12pm

RS:X Oceanic Championship - Casper Bouman NED took first place overall and the first ISAF ranking win with the new RS:X Olympic equipment. Chen Quibin CHN was first in the Women with Aussie Allison Shreeve second.

J24 National Championship, Sandringham Yacht Club - Sean Wallace from WA was the highest-placed Australian boat with "Fly Emirates". Bruschetta BRA and Brain Cramp USA were first and second overall.

J24 World Championship, Sandringham Yacht Club. "Shifty, light and choppy," was how Luigi Ravioli ITA, skipper of leading entry Black Jack, described racing on a long first day, January 16.

Audi Australian Etchells Championship, Royal Brighton Yacht Club, Melbourne. Victorian sailor Chris Jackson skippered Quantum Leap to a win in the first race on January 16.

Royal Geelong Yacht Club will conduct the inaugural World Skiff Regatta for 12ft, 14ft, 16ft and 18ft skiffs as part of 2007 Sail Melbourne.

After rounding the scoring gate of Eclipse Island on the south western tip of Australia in third place, movistar (Bouwe Bekking) headed into Albany to collect spares to bolster the jury repair job on their canting keel system.

Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), in fourth position, is also heading to Albany after suffering more problems with the keel ram.

ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) had problems with their mainsail luff track earlier in the week and are about three days from Eclipse Island. Brazil 1 has resumed racing and is over 1000 miles behind them.

The young guns on ABN AMRO TWO have unofficially snatched the world 24 hour run record by clocking up 563nm.

The Melbourne Stopover is set to spark a month-long party at Waterfront City, Docklands, featuring a huge program of free live music and entertainment by some of Australia's best-loved performers. The official welcome celebration for the crews is on January 21.

The inaugural Access Class 2006 Australian and International Championships will be sailed as part of the Melbourne Stopover on January  26 - 29.

Australia Day, January 26 marks the running of the 170th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour, the oldest continuous sailing regatta in the world. Entries are closing.

With an increase in interstate entries, local boats and an overall number of participants, Skandia Geelong Week 2006 will have one of the strongest fleets ever. Sixteen crews from South Australia will head across the border to Skandia Geelong Week.

Young match racing sailors from five nations will contest the Hardy Cup 2006, the ISAF Grade 3 Match Racing Regatta conducted annually by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in February.

The inaugural Club Marine Commodore's Cup Regatta will be held April 6 - 9 off Surfers Paradise, taking place in between the Sydney to Gold Coast and the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Races.

The World Match Racing Tour, the successor to the Swedish Match Tour, and ISAF signed a Memorandum of Understanding, marking the first phase in the achievement of a long-term partnership to create a new World Match Racing Tour.

Nick Scandone and Sally Barkow were named US Sailing's 2005 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year. Scandone, a sufferer of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) was recognized for his win of the 2.4 Metre World Championship. Barkow won a string of international events, including two world championships, in four different keelboat classes.

Heineken Cape to Bahia Yacht Race - The Brazilian catamaran Adrenalina Pura takes line honours in the multi-hull class and shattered the previous crossing record by just over five days.

12th Singapore Straits Regatta 2006 - 29 boats in six classes go under starters orders on January 18.

OFF THE BEACH
Contender World Championship, Fremantle Sailing Club. Andrea Bonezzi of Italy wins the title with a day to spare. 

The B14 World Championship, Woollahara Sailing Club, Sydney. Matt Searle and Andy Ramus GBR win on Gutted Hedgehog.

Juniper 2006 Australian Youth Championship, Mooloolaba Yacht Club. The particularly young age of most of the top performers is a promising sign of what's to come in Australian youth sailing.

Australian Optimist Dinghy Championship - 12 year old Maxime Mazard from Noumea, New Caledonia won the event by 15 points.

Australian Flying Dutchman Championship - Norman Rydge and Richard Scarr won the event after winning the last race in a tight series from incumbent champions Ian McCrossin and James Cook.

18 Footers - Current Giltinan champions Euan McNicol, Tim Austin and Seve Jarvin took out Race 2 of the Australian Championship on Sydney Harbour.

Jacob's Creek Australian 16ft Championship, Sydney Harbour. Former series leader Fluid Building Services was sensationally disqualified after a controversial start to the third heat.

Organisers are expecting up to 100 entries for the 2006 'Great Race' – an endurance race from Southport to Manly for dinghies and off-the-beach multihulls on February 4.

For three days, the world's best windsurfers showed thousands of spectators freestyle, slalom, and jumping in a large pool at the London Boat Show. Ricardo Campello and Daida Moreno went home with the overall titles.

The British sailing team preparing for the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 will be referred to from now on as "Skandia Team GBR 2008" after the signing of Skandia as its first ever title sponsor.

See also
    Volvo Ocean Race & Melbourne Stopover - Access Championships
    Keel Boats & Multihulls - Nick Scandone - US Yachtsman of the Year

MARINE INDUSTRY
Australian boat builders could sink under waves of imported craft unless they are prepared to fight for survival in a domestic market taken for granted warns Bill Barry-Cotter.

CRUISING FATALITY
Searchers found the body of a 62-year-old man who fell overboard from his yacht off Lord Howe Island on January 12. Five aircraft scoured the area and using sonar equipment located the man's body. The man was sailing with his wife and another couple on Xanthippe from Lord Howe Island to Pittwater when he went overboard, about 100nm from Lord Howe.

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