2001 - a yachting odyssey pt4

Gerald New rounds off this series with a look at what was in the news in the last three months of the year

Monday December 31st 2001, Author: Gerald New, Location: United Kingdom
Roberto VarinelliAs we entered the final quarter of the year tragedy hit the Mini Transat when Roberto Varinelli was reported missing.
A rescue fleet headed for his last reported position but as the first finishers arrived in the Mini Transat, Roberto Varinelli's (pictured left) Mini Transat boat was recovered but there was no sign of the missing Italian sailor.

After her preliminary shakedown sail, Marie Tabarly, daughter of the great man, officially launched Oliver de Kersauson's new mega-maxi trimaran. While further South the fleet was gathering in St Tropez. Carlo Borlenghi took his camera along and just couldn't resist taking pictures of what he saw.

Down at Weymouth it was the annual gathering of dinghy sailing speed freaks for another Weymouth Speed Week. The objective for competitors is to sail as fast as they are able over a distance of 500 metres, about one third of a mile. At a speed of 30 knots it takes approximately 30 seconds to cover 500 metres.

For competitors there are two main records to be broken. Portland sailing speed record of 36 knots (41.4 mph - 66.6 km/hr) set by Tim Coleman's Crossbow in 1980 and the World Record for the absolute sailing speed record of 46.52 knots (53.5 mph - 86.2 km/hr) set by Simon McKeon sailing Yellow Pages Endeavour in Australia in 1993.

WindjetNo records were broken this year but a British group, based in Lymington, have started to build a new craft to attempt the outright wind water speed record early next year.

No details of the British craft are available at the moment, all the team will divulge is that the boat is designed to be able to achieve high speed in more open water conditions than the protected areas required by recent record breakers. As a first step in their quest the team broke the UK land speed record.
If you thought the America's Cup was incomprehensibly complicated, then you had not read the rules for the Louis Vuitton Cup - the series that will select the challenger from the present ten syndicates. Read on. Talking of complicated, the Laser finally got some improved controls after a couple of years talking about it but nothing is ever straightforward when the ISAF and the Olympics are involved.

In the Volvo, Team SEB were over a hundred miles behind in the Volvo Ocean Race. Now Krantz and his crew are twenty miles in front and pulling away. What is going on? We also had an exclusive report from Neal McDonald. While further north, Steve Fossett's PlayStation was trying once again to beat the transatlantic record. And not just try, he succeeded

Until just before midday yesterday (10 Oct) Steve Fossett's PlayStation was widely regarded as an also-ran. Now her place in sailing history was guaranteed. James Boyd joined them the full story in words and pictures of how nine men took nearly two days off the long standing Transatlantic record. That PlayStation also took the outright 24 hour run record only added to the magnitude of her achievement.

PlayStation break record

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