New York Yacht Club’s seventh biennial Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex finished on the 24th of July after 4 days of racing. The Southern Cross 52 Vela Veloce was determined the best performing boat and was named the 2010 Rolex US-IRC National Champion.
TEAMORIGIN’s Ben Ainslie, and BMW ORACLE Racing’s James Spithill, will lead their teams contesting the 1851 Cup. Competition will take place on the historic waters of the Solent and around the Isle of Wight upon which a race won by the New York yacht America gave rise to the America’s Cup, the oldest trophy in the international sport. The 1851 Cup celebrates this event.
Mike Slade’s Farr 100 Maxi, ICAP Leopard, will be hot favourite for line honours for this weekend’s race to St. Malo and make no mistake; the world record breaking yacht will be attempting to break their own course record, set in 2008.
Alex Jackson’s maxi 100-footer sloop Speedboat finished the Newport Bermuda Race early Monday morning at 3:49 AM EDT. Finishing second at 6:25 was Il Mostro (Puma), a 70-foot Volvo Ocean Race boat sailed by Kenny Read, whose brother, Brad, was in Speedboat’s afterguard. Boat boats sailed in the Open Division for racing yachts with canting keels.
As expected because of her 100-feet length overall, Speedboat continues to lead the 183-boat fleet in the Newport Bermuda Race. At 14:35 EDT she was 125 nautical miles from Bermuda sailing at 13 knots.
It was a sight that can be found only in Newport. Sailors of every vintage – the tall, tanned, Fabio-looking crews of the carbon maxis, and the Topsider-wearing men and women with the requisite polo shirts – lined the street in front of the marquee at the Jane Pickens Theater for the Bermuda Race skippers meeting. Old friends were shaking hands, not having seen each other since the 2008 race. Wide-eyed newcomers were eagerly poking their heads inside the historic building in the heart of Washington Square.
The supermaxi racing yacht ICAP Leopard, the 100ft sailing yacht owned by Helical Bar PLC chief executive Mike Slade, is currently preparing for the annual JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Fresh from her latest transatlantic record attempt, her crew are working hard to ensure that ICAP Leopard is in the best possible shape to take on Saturday’s classic 55 mile sprint around the Isle of Wight.
At 11h05m09s CEST Igor Simcic’s Maxi Esimit Europa 2 sailing yacht crossed the finish line of the 2010 Giraglia Rolex Cup race, to take line honours in the 58th edition of the 241 nautical-mile race from St. Tropez to San Remo. Supermaxi Esimit Europa 2 completed the course in just 23 hours 09 seconds, 5 hours 6 seconds outside the course record.
It was a day of sharply contrasting fortunes for past and present Audi MedCup Champions on the Rade Sud today as the Marseille Trophy opened with three races which proved a very different test to last month’s breezy curtain raiser in Cascais, Portugal. Iberdrola won the GP42 Series Practice Race.