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Pin Made ![]() The very powered up ID 35 Relentless nails the pin at the first Transpac start. Li'l hip Eric Shampain and owner Tim Fuller will be pushing the boat hard and will be a trip to follow. They are off to a nice start - can they hold everyone off? Thanks to John Fuller for the shot. |

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Respectfully submitted, Steve Bodner |

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Rock the Vote Self congratulatory sports shows are nearly as annoying and worthless as self congratulatory 'Hollywood' shows like the Oscars. When an industry gathers to jerk themselves off, for all the world to see, we'd suggest ducking. The ESPN Espy's is indeed one of those shows that you otherwise shouldn't care about, but they have at least one reason to care - 2008 Paralympic sailing gold medalist Maureen McKinnon-Tucker is one of the nominees in the Female Athlete with a Disability category. Given what she has accomplished, we'd suggest you make the effort to vote - it is a pain as you have to register, but do it - our community can make a difference. |

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Light Time ![]() In the spirit of the photo of the Antrim 49 being finished for Transpac, (see Rapid Build) this is Ragtime's main bulkhead replacement project as of June 4th, with the old bulkhead out. The main bulkhead and aluminum ring frame, circa 1985, was discovered to be damaged just before Cal Cup in mid May. n a shameless plug for Dencho, we launched with the new bulkhead in place yesterday, as well as a new six foot long carbon mast step, a new chine to chine wood and carbon rib under the mast step, and a new ring frame four feet forward of the bulkhead on the line of the head. Alan Andrews did all the engineering on a rush basis, staying just ahead of Dencho's daily progress. Both the ring frame and the bulkhead have liberal amounts of carbon lay up, and the boat is stronger than ever before. We're looking forward to Transpac with Ragtime in the lightest, fastest, most powerful configuration she has ever hit the start line with. To plug the Dencho/Alan Andrews team a little more, Ragtime is over 3000 pounds lighter than four years ago with keel and rudder drag cut by 40%, similar righting moment, and 9% more sail area. Pray for wind. |


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Lucky Loser?
Trailing among the no win brigade was Peter Gilmour who, up until today, has shone in the opening days of each round to date, only to fade into oblivion when the racing got really serious. Maybe this bad start will reverse the trend and Gilmour’s star will shine when it matters? Pic from Dan Ljungsvik and more here. |

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big pimpin'
2009-06-30Pointed Longtime SA and OTW Anarchy supporter Point Loma Outfitting does a great job keeping their customers up-to-date on the latest deals and offers from the San Diego based sailing apparel shop. Owner Tom Carruthers has embraced Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and of course, Sailing Anarchy rather than traditional print marketing - and it is working for him. Tom has just launched a new toy for his customers to play with. Called “Point Loma Points”, it is a reward system for online customers. “While we love giving great one-on-one service to customers that want that personal touch, we realize that most people want their ordering quick and easy, and we've created a website and ordering process that does exactly that,” Tom said. “The PL Points program rewards our great customers for sticking with Point Loma Outfitting when they order their high quality sailing gear.” Customers earn one Point Loma Point for each dollar spent at www.pointlomaoutfitting.com, and points are available immediately to use toward the next purchase. There are no membership fees, questionnaires, expiration dates, or restrictions on using Point Loma Points, and customers with existing Point Loma Outfitting online accounts will receive bonus Points if they haven't already. “Every item available at Point Loma Outfitting is eligible to earn Point Loma Points,” said Carruthers. “And you can use Points toward the purchase of anything we sell; from the heaviest-duty offshore SLAM parka to the lightest Patagonia underlayer, and everything in between.” “We're not looking for marketing data from those who create accounts - just basic contact details,” said Carruthers. “Even so, those customers that prefer to check out without registering an account or earning Points will always be able to do so.” |

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It was owner Ron Wisner’s first ocean race and he quipped “It was one hell of a first time. It wasn’t the reaching race as advertised. We had a beat most of the way and that is our worst point of sail on this old design. We even had to tack to cross the finish line.” Of the original forty eight entries, three did not start and eighteen – mostly much bigger boats with experienced ocean racers on board - retired in the face of confused seas and big winds early in the race. With winds reaching from thirty knots into the mid forties, Hotspur faced the worst 24 hours with just a storm jib up and a storm trysail and storm jib for 12 more hours and, for its efforts, was awarded a Cook’s Trophy, which in this event is given to the last arrival in each class. In this case, it was an appropriate award for Hotspur’s cook, another first timer Rick Higgins, served up fried eggs and hot sweet rolls every morning and dinners included such delicacies as smoked salmon. Well done lads, it’s the sort of gutsy story we like to hear about. Pic of Hotspur by David Skinner and more here. |

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road trip
Read OnGarda At The Gates Another Northern Summer means another Road Trip for the Cleans. Not to confuse anyone - I mean, we're pretty much always on the road - but the next 8 weeks mean almost nonstop racing action for Mer and me, and as always, we'll do our best to take you along for the ride. Italian Stallions 2009-06-29 |

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race report
2009-06-29A First Jim Richardson didn’t just take his third Farr 40 title this weekend, in Porto Cervo, his Barking Mad became the first American boat to win outside home waters. It was close going into the final day, with testing racing conditions, due to a building Mistral wind kicking up a lumpy sea, made lumpier by a big spectator fleet. Two races were sailed in winds in northwesterlies that gusted to the mid-twenties and tested tired crews. Tough Joe Fly had a chance, it was the battle between Nerone and Barking Mad that all eyes were on and it was Massimo Mezzaroma's boat that went out guns blazing and took the first race of the day, making it a “winner takes all” second and final race.
According to Richardson “Immediately before the start, we just looked at each other and said this is why we're here. We're here for an opportunity to win the regatta on the last race.” Any self-doubts were kept private, though post-race Richardson confessed to some troubled thoughts, “I never doubted my team's capability, but leading wire-to-wire puts a little bit of extra pressure on each and every race. In 1999, we led going into the last race and ended up third, so that was in the back of my mind. I felt pretty comfortable that we were going to be able to get a good start in the race and get around the course in good shape. We knew we had our hands full; we knew we had to sail well and that is what we did.” As the initial beat unwound, the crew of Barking Mad found themselves in second place, hot on the heels of Alessandro Barnaba's Fiamma and overtaking them at the offset mark with a textbook spinnaker hoist. Those watching the racing started counting back to Nerone. The left had clearly not paid for the Italian boat and the Barking Mad crew no longer had to sail as though lives depended on it. They just needed to keep between Nerone and the finish and they did that comfortably. Pic from Kurt Arrigo and more here. |

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Transpac Today The single 'biggest' race on the west coast of Cali gets under way today, with Division 6 and 7 starting this afternoon. These are mostly the slow pokes, with the Turbo ID 35 double handed Relentless with Eric Shampain on board being the most interesting. As the faster boats get going, we'll have some great on board reports from Alfa Romeo, Criminal Mischief, and Horizon. |


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vid
2009-06-29Hell Yes? Last week's pic of the catamaran “Illusion” riding breaking surf at Ala Moana is tame compared to this shitbox's epic outward bound trip of the same wave. They say god looks out for fools; this video is evidence that sometimes he looks out for adrenaline junkies on a shitbox, too - and even makes sure that an all-star commentator is there to film it. Nice one. What do you think? |

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Move It The Horus Superyacht Cup finished in Palma, Mallorca on Saturday, with strong winds and bright sunshine to give spectators and photographers exactly what they wanted. As in the last round, in Porto Cervo, Italy sponsoring brought luck for it was title sponsor Horus whose classic Sunshine won the day, with a bunch of happy guests onboard. It wasn’t enough to win the event though, that honour went to Gliss, whose distinctive turquoise hull will be remembered by Valencia America’s Cup spectators. Every time we see these things racing, we reckon you need a fair bit of nerve to drive something that size and weight into a racing confrontation with another boat; the insurance premium must be more than most of us pay for a yacht! Pic from Raw Photo and plenty more here. |

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Charter and Help We like companies that attempt to give back, and here's one:
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Green, Not Blue ![]() All those blue labels, except for that one very notable green one. Barking Mad (Jim Richardson/Terry Hutchinson) and their new Quantum Sails just won the Farr 40 Worlds in Italy, by seven points over second place Nerone. Well done! Photos thanks to Stefano Gattani/www.carloborlenghi.com |

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Black, Not Blue ![]() Telefonica Black, skippered by Fernando Echavarri finishes first on leg 10 (and final) in St Petersburg, crossing the line at 00:41:25 GMT, with Puma just behind at 00:42:48 GMT and indeed grabbing second overall. A nice way for Black to end what has been an also-ran VOR for them. Telefonica Blue finished third for this leg, and third overall, a result for them that no doubt disappointing. We'll have skipper Bouwe Bekking's comments soon. Photo Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race |

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The Buccaneer class continues its recent expansion with its first ever move to the west coast for its North American championships, currently underway at the Mission Bay Yacht Club in San Diego. At the half way point James Daus and Susan Swisher were tied for first place with class chairman David Spira and Dennis Martinelli. 27 boats are competing from '70s era Chryslers to new boats from current builder Nickels Boat Works. |

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Meat Loaf Mike “Rail Meat” Hennessy made some final comments on the Bermuda 1-2 organizers' decision to postpone the start for this important ocean race here, and he wraps up his excellent coverage from onboard his Class 40 “Dragon”: Sorry about the radio silence in the past 48 hours. My last post had us tacking east to gain some leverage on the fleet. That entire effort put us 20 miles or so east of the Rhumb line when we flopped it over and headed back in the general direction of Newport. I will give the weather gods points on one thing... the conditions were very consistent. Same wind direction (north to NNE) and same wind speed (25 to 30). As we got up into an area that I would call roughly the lee off Cape Cod, the sea conditions moderated slightly. We still had short period waves, and there was still a lot of crashing, bashing and wetness but it was better than before. In terms of course, we still could not hold Newport but we were doing a damn fine imitation of it in a boat and Class that is not meant to enjoy going dead up wind. Ultimately, we fetched Block Island. We knew that Alex and Nick had 7 miles to go, and we knew that we had about 30 to 40 to go so that was a bit of a bummer. No magical way to cover that kind of deficit in that kind of time. 2009-06-26 |

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Aboard the Barking Mad we are focusing on trying not to do it to ourselves. Last year we went 20, 22, 22 in the last three races, so we know every race needs to be dealt with in the same manner of pre-race preparation and focus. The story right now is that there is no real story! We've just completed the first five races, and we have survived. Joe Fly is second, just one point back, with Nerone in third another 9 points back. Over the next two days the forecast is more of the same good westerly gradient, putting an emphasis on starting and boat speed. From a speed perspective, things on the BM are going nicely. We still have room for improvement but have made good gains in the upwind department. I know that this is a little boring for all the SA readers but if anything "good" comes up I will be sure to let you know....standing by in Porto Cervo 5 down 5 to go! |

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KP Duty Our pals from the US Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point are having a great time while kicking a little ass at Block Island Race Week with their own little flotilla of race and support boats, and amazingly (for BIRW) only one of them is a J/Boat! The teenager-crewed STP65 “Vanquish” finally took a race out of Rosebud yesterday, while their J/29 Renegade is mid fleet but fighting back. But the real story for the Mids is the Farr 40 Nimbus, which is on three bullets in a row at the moment with Morning Light alum Chris Branning on tactics, breathing down Rod Jabin's neck aboard Ramrod. Great news from the kiddies and the best big boat race training program in the US. Here's a little note one of the Freshmen wrote on the excellent King's Point Waterfront blog:
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Fun BIRW fact of the day: Roughly half the 153 boats at BIRW are J/Boats. |

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big pimpin
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