Weekly Sailing Summary

Summary for w/b - 04 July, 2006 12pm

GIPSY MOTH IV and YACHTING AWARDS
Tickets are still available for the Gipsy Moth Royal Gala Dinner and the Australian Yachting Awards on July 12, with guest of honour Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.

Gipsy Moth IV will sail into Sydney Harbour on Sunday July 9. A large flotilla of yachts is expected to escort Sir Francis Chichester's yacht up the harbour to Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. The 54ft ketch last departed Sydney in January 1967 after the only stop on Chichester's record world circumnavigation.

July 14 - 16 - Gipsy Moth IV will be on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum until Sunday July 16 when she departs for Queensland. Gipsy Moth IV staff will be on hand to answer any questions and to give visitors guided tours of the yacht.

MELBOURNE BOAT SHOW
July 6 - 10 -- Club Marine Melbourne Boat Show, Melbourne Exhibition Centre. For the first time in Australia four of James Bond's boats and a collection of priceless props will be on display. Fashion parades, safety demonstrations, celebrity fishing speakers will be at the Yamaha Superstage. Anyone buying a boat at the show gets a free Boat Handling Course.

Whitsunday Rent A Yacht - winners of the 2005 Stand of the Year Award - Tourism, will be at the Melbourne Boat Show . Visit them on Stand H14 and get some great deals for skipper yourself boating holidays on sailing yachts and motor cruisers in the Whitsundays. Ask them about a terrific new boating holiday adventure "Islands and Reef" skipper yourself around the islands then have a cruise guide join your vessel and take you for a trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef. Ph: 1800 075 000

KEEL BOATS
Margaret Williams became the first woman to sail around Australia solo when she sailed past Mooloolaba on Wednesday, but she has to sail to Fremantle to complete a non-stop circumnavigation. Initially she opted to sail outside the Great Barrier Reef but has decided to come inside through Hydrographers Passage to do repairs.

Queensland Government South Pacific Boomerang - 21 yachts started in the Melbourne to Vanuatu yacht race. Sydney entry, Andrew Short Marine, ran aground in shallow waters just outside of Portsea only an hour before the race and arrived at the start line with just ten minutes to spare.

The second last pointscore race in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 2006 BMW Sydney Winter Series ended with protests involving placegetters in two divisions, and just a handful of points between the leaders in almost all ten divisions.

Sean Langman is switching from speed to nostalgia by restoring a 1932 built 9.01 metres (29.5 feet) yacht to contest this year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, seventy years after the boat made its only successful voyage to Hobart - having been wrecked on the first attempt.

Sunsail has just seven yachts remaining for charter in Hahn Premium Race Week from August 19 - 26. Prices for charter start from just AUD$1,040 per person including nine nights yacht charter, fuel, race levy, insurance, marine park fees, a Hamilton Island marina berth for the duration of the charter plus spinnaker pole and sheets, braces, kicker and basic blocks. (Rate based on eight people racing aboard a Sun Odyssey Jeanneau 35.) Call 1800 803 988

The eighth and final stage of the 2005-06 World Match Racing Tour, the Locman Cup – Elba Island, is scheduled July 11-16. The 100,000€ event features three of the top five skippers on the World Tour leaderboard, Peter Gilmour of Australia, Staffan Lindberg of Finland and Ian Williams of Great Britain.

BMW ORACLE Racing and Luna Rossa's fight for third got a little too intense. A collision on the first upwind leg saw the American bowsprit torn from the boat, while Luna Rossa showed significant damage on the port side. The Jury ruled that Luna Rossa must pay its own costs, as well as 80 percent of the repair bill on the American boat.

MULTIHULLS
Bruno Peyron and eleven crew set sail from New York on the maxi-catamaran Orange II on Sunday in an attempt at the crewed Atlantic record. They have since gone through the 750-mile barrier in 24 hours... A new world record if ratified by the WSSRC.

Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby win the Belgium Murphy and Nye Formula 18 regatta against 49 of there nearest rivals, one week before they defend their Formula 18 World championship once again sailing their Hobie Cat Tiger.

OFF THE BEACH, OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC CLASSES
ISAF World Sailing Rankings for Olympic Classes - Ten Aussies are in the top 20.

Yngling World Championship is being held in La Rochelle, France.

After four successive runners up trophies, Perth's Christ Church Grammar School's sailing team broke through to win the Australian School Team Racing championship in Melbourne.

Potential Paralympics talent may have been spotted for the first time at the Sailing Development Program Open Day staged by NSW Institute of Sport at Sailability Rushcutters Bay, Sydney in June.

Sail Melbourne 2007 will boast an Olympic and Invited Classes Regatta, at least 14 National Championships, an International Skiff Regatta and a Pacific Rim Championship for the Optimist Dinghy, in a growing carnival of world-class sailing.

NEWS BRIEFS
Australia II skipper John Bertrand launches an appeal for $100,000 to enable the Australian National Maritime Museum to restore a revolutionary 18-foot skiff that Ben Lexcen conceived, built and sailed in 1959… when he was just 23 years old.

Thanks to the swift action of Search and Rescue Authorities and a GME MT400 EPIRB, two Australian men rescued from the Coral Sea are now safely on their way back to New Caledonia.

Keppel Bay Marina has achieved a new record $2.3 million price tag for a Capricorn Coast villa with a 19-metre multi-hull marina berth.

Northshore Yachting Services acquires Australia's Northshore Yachts and Boatmate Shipwrights.

Ian Frith, former managing director and founder of IC Frith & Associates Insurance Brokers, has become CEO and the major shareholder of Nautilus Marine Underwriting Insurance Agency.

July 20 - 23 -- Trading Post Adelaide Boat Show, Adelaide Convention Centre.

Aug 3 - 8 -- Sydney International Boat Show, Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour.

More information on www.boatingoz.com.au or subscribe to receive weekly email news with links.

Photo: The Skud 18, the new Paralympic class boat sailing on a Sunday morning on Sydney Harbour.