2002 - a year in sailing part 3

The regatta season in full flourish

July kicked off with the early stages of the Tour de France a la Voile. Aside from a high number of repeat offenders such as race regular Jimmy Pahun, there were British entries in each of the three classes - the pros, amateurs and students. Once gales allowed racing to get underway, Jimmy Pahun's Region Ile de France picked up the first offshore leg to Cherbourg and was dominant in most of the offshore races. The most consistent performer in the early stages was Pierre Loic Berthet's Nantes-St-Nazaire (see photo below), but by the time the boats had finished the Atlantic section of the race it was Pahun's team that were back in the lead.



Meanwhile the 60ft trimaran Nokia set a new record in the Gotland Runt, knocking three hours off the previous time. Nokia's Stefan Myralf was leading the same team that set the current Sydney-Hobart record aboard a Volvo Ocean 60 three years ago. However the event was marred by the loss overboard of 65 year old Finnish yachtsman Mauri Luukkala off his yacht Argon.

The ISAF International Sailing Games got underway in Marseilles with racing for Lasers, Laser Radials, Hobie 16s, 470s, J/22s, J/80s, and the Bic boards. In the 470 Rogers and Glanville won a race, but failed to sail consistently to get into the medals. Fickle Med conditions caused two days to be lost. In the J/80s Ian Williams' team put in a sterling performance were eventually outstripped by Paul Brotherton. We caught up with Paul Brotherton (left) after the event.

One of the most interesting entries lining up to take part in Around Alone was Grant Dalton's big brother Graham who was sailing an updated and 'turboed' version of Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher. Peter Bentley was the first journalist to go for a sail on the HSBC-backed Hexagon (see photo below) while James Boyd had a crawl round her and spoke to her designer Merfyn Owen. Meanwhile Thierry Dubois' Open 60 suffered a collision in the Kiel Canal and we reported on Philippe Jeantot's decision to leave Open 50s out of the next Vendee Globe. Mid-July Emma Richards announced herself as a surprise 11th hour entry in Around Alone. We caught up with Mike Golding, returned home on his newly rerigged Ecover.



After announcing they would be building a second boat, GBR Challenge then decided they would be flying it down to Auckland. The boat was to be called Wight Magic. Meanwhile Oracle's second yacht, USA76, was launched. We spoke to Le Defi Areva crewman Tim Kroger about being a German within a French team, training out of German submarine silo in France and taking over the former German base in Auckland.

With the Farr 40 Med circuit over we caught up with Struntje Light tactician and Finn Gold medallist Iain Percy (left), to talk about his Star campaign.

Meanwhile Ben Ainslie was leaving no doubt to his talent, now directed towards a Finn Olympic campaign. At the Europeans in Cesme, Turkey he pulled into second behind Luca Devoti on day three and went on to win the event and subsequently repeated this at the prestigeous Finn Gold Cup. We caught up with the new European and World champion. Shirley Robertson was not so fortunately at the end of the Yngling Europeans in Switzerland which were won by Monica Azon's Spanish team.

Up at the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, Sweden, Team New Zealand's Dean Barker and his former mentor Russell Coutts made it through to the final - a taste of things to come in the America's Cup itself, but was the result? The final was eventually taken by Barker (see photo below). We caught up with the Team New Zealand helm (see pt1 and pt2).



At the subsequent Roberto Trombini Trophy in Italy Jesper Radich and OneWorld's James Spithill made it through to the finals, which were eventually taken by the young Australian. We spoke to the man behind the Swedish Match Tour, Octagon's Scott MacLeod. Meanwhile Paul Campbell-James won the Governor's Cup youth match racing over in the States.

With the arms race for the Route du Rhum getting into full swing, we looked at some of the most interesting of the new generation of 60ft trimarans - Thomas Coville's new Sodebo and Michel Desjoyeaux's Geant and the new Gitana X trimaran. The latter was supposed to sail in the class' Zeebrugge Grand Prix but pulled out with beam delamination problems. Her builders Multiplast announced how they were going to make repairs. We later revealed Geant testing a new International 14-style rudder T foil (see below). At the Belgium grand prix Loick Peyron was again on fire after his Course des Phares victory. Day two saw a collision between Sopra Group and Bonduelle.



In the Mini class' Demi-Cle Ian Munslow won the singlehanded class on the first leg into Cork while Pia L'Obry and Liz Wardley put in an impressive second overall. We spoke to Liz Wardley about her transistion from the bow of Amer Sports Too to the Mini class. The Finnish/Aussie girl duo then went on to win the return leg to France.

With Rob Greenhalgh away on the Tour Voile, Tim Robinson took over the helm of RMW Marine and maintained the team's winning performance at the final UK 18ft skiff grand prix of the season.

Going into day one of Ford Cork week, Nick and Anne Haigh's Farr 40 Too Steamy was leading the big boat class, In the end they picked up the IRMb prize while the IRMa class went to Glynn Williams' modified IC45 Wolf.

The Challenge Business announced plans for a Round Britain race aboard their round the world boats and the another EDS-sponsored Open 60 event also on the Round Britain course. The catamaran Raw Nerve was attempting to break the Round Australia record but a few days into their tour the rig broke - crewman Paul Larsen reported. Bob McNeal's new maxZ86 maxi Zephyrus V won her first major race - the West Marine Pacific Cup to Hawaii. We caught up with crewman Gordon Maguire.

Team Panther's Rob Greenhalgh (left) told us about how they were getting on in the Tour Voile. The following day Panther won their first points scoring race in big wind off Marseilles.

27 July was a terrible day for Team Dennis Conner when USA77 sank. Fortunately the team were able to recover her.

The Europe Europeans were taken by Finn Sari Multala. At the Youth Worlds in Canada Pippa Wilson and Jenny Marks won the 29er girls class. Peter Bentley was there with his camera.

In the build up to the Commodore's Cup, RORC were taking a hard line on the dubious nationality of some of the proposed entries. However after a few days of hard negotiating RORC had come up with a solution.

The CYCA's Sydney to Gold Coast race ended in controversy with line honours winner Grant Warrington's Australian Skandia Wild Thing being disqualified. Some weeks later the disqualification was overthrown.

Prior to the start of the Solitaire du Figaro we previewed the event and spoke to 2001 winner Eric Drouglazet. There was a bizarre prologue to the race itself where the winner deliberately didn't cross the finish line. The first leg into Crosshaven was won by the young Antoine Koch while light wind at the end of the second leg turned the finish into a lottery eventually won by Sebastien Audigane despite Eric Drouglazet leading for a majority of the leg.

At Cowes Week Kit Hobday announced some very sketchy plans for an alternative British America's Cup challenge in conjunction with Peter de Savary. After a day lost due to no wind, the week ended in the protest room. The IRM class was eventually taken by Nick Hewson's Team Tonic.

We spoke to Chris Law (right), winner of the new UBS Challenge match racing event in Newport, about his match race plans and about the America's Cup (see part 1 and part 2).

Racing to make his qualifier for Around Alone, Graham Dalton's Hexagon dismasted. We spoke to Dalton about the dismasting and his situation and caught up with Emma Richards midway through her transatlantic qualifier. Meanwhile there was continued carnage in the 60ft trimaran fleet with the dismasting of Geant.

On 11 August Bruno Peyron's maxicat set off on an attempt on the Round Britain record (see our photo gallery). James Boyd witnessed their departure. Meanwhile another French maxi was in the Solent - Jean-Luc van den Heede's monohull Adrien set off for St Malo to set a monohull trans-Channel record.

The first day of Orange's anti-clockwise attempt was light. But by day two they were back in the money, reported Ed Gorman from on board and once they'd rounded the Shetlands they were launched. With the conditions going light the chances of them breaking the record were in the balance. The record was in their grasp until the closing moments when the big cat was becalmed within sight of the finish line. The sale of Orange to Offshore Challenges was complicated when the big cat later dismasted off La Ciotat.

The first day of the RORC's Commodore's Cup saw the French Red team pull out a narrow lead and consolidated this on the second day (see our photo gallery). There was some debate about whether the offshore race should have been shortened in the very light conditions, but the French team continued to forge ahead and took the event by an impressive margin. We spoke to some of the skippers to get their thoughts on the regatta (see our second photo gallery). Farr International's Peter Morton was particularly critical.



We reviewed the new Pro25 sportsboat from designers Judel/Vrolijk, while later at Southampton Boat Show we looked at the Latvia-built production H22 from Harley Racing Sailboats and the gorgeous JS9000 from Australia.

With pre-Louis Vuitton Cup action hotting up down in Auckland, the AC Arbitration panel made their ruling against OneWorld. OneWorld and Team NZ met to iron out their remaining issues. The Swedish Victory Challenge team went int mourning when their principle backer TV and communications mogul Jan Stenbeck died. We caught up with Victory Challenge's Magnus Holmberg (see part 1 and part 2 of this interview).

On 28 August Team New Zealand's new NZL-81 was launched and this was shortly followed by that of Prada's new Luna Rossa ITA80. We spoke to GBR Challenge's helmsman Andy Green about the progress of Peter Harrison's team in Auckland (see part 1 and 2 of this article). At the beginning of September we wrote an update on the challengers' progress.

At the Olympic test event in Athens, the first day of racing saw Paul Goodison and Ben Ainslie power into the lead in their respective classes. We reviewed Julian Bethwaite's new trapeze harnes. Tornado sailor Hugh Styles reported back from Martha's Vineyard, where he and Adam May were training prior to the Worlds. We reported on the controversial audit commissioned by the International Olympic Committee recommending that the keelboat classes be dropped from the 2008 Olympics.

After four races Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell were lying second in the Star Worlds behind Prada afterguard Torben Grael. Percy and Mitchell went on to become Star World Champions.

Offshore Challenge's Nick Moloney had acquired Jean-Pierre Mouligne's Cray Valley Open 50 and sent us his report from his Route du Rhum qualifier. Over in Dun Laoghaire, Dutchman Albert Kooijman aboard Just 4 Fun convincingly won the Alfa Romeo J/24 European Championship following a windy finale to the nine race series. Clipper Ventures announced that they would be building a fleet of 12 new Ed Dubois-designed 68 footers for their round the world race.

First boat into Gijon at the end of the third leg of the Solitaire du Figaro was by Charles Caudrelier-Benac's Bostik Findley . Winner of the final leg back to Cherbourg was 40 year old Kito de Pavant, who took the event overall on points (see photo below).



We caught up with Stars & Stripes helmsman Kenny Read about sailing with the most capped America's Cup team and life in the Team Dennis Conner camp ( part 2).

Out of nowhere on 6 September not one but three boats set out on attempts on the elusive Round Britain and Ireland record - Tracy Edwards' Maiden 2, Olivier de Kersauson's Geronimo and the foiler L' Hydroptere. Early on the proceedings L'Hydroptere pulled out with damage. With Geronimo astern of them Maiden2 were maintaining radio silence - exasperating for those us trying to follow their progress. At 06.52 BST on 10 September Maiden II crossed the finishing line off Ventnor in the Isle of Wight, smashing the record by 28 hours with a new time of 4 days 17 hours 3minutes and 23 secs. We spoke to skipper Brian Thompson about how the record had gone. Maiden2 susequently went on to pulverise the Cowes-St Malo record.

With the Fecamps trimaran grand prix under way we spoke to some of the designers about the numerous costly mast breakages that had taken place in the class. The problem was confirmed when Franck Cammas' Groupama dismasted. Later while on his qualifier for the Route du Rhum Jean le Cam's Bonduelle suffered a collision.

We spoke to Leopard skipper Chris Sherlock about the repairs being made to Mike Slade's maxi. Meanwhile the Maxi Worlds were the first of three major events taking place in Sardinia in September (see photo gallery). At the subsequent Swan Cup the new Swan 70, Fast.net owned by Thierry de Passemar (FRA), today won overall despite the boat only being ready two day before the start of the regatta (see photo gallery). At the end of the Rolex Big Boat Series in San Francisco' Jim Richardson's Barking Mad won the fiercely competitive 20-boat Farr 40 class. Closer to home Giles and Heather Chipperfield won the first K6 Nationals.



With the start of Around Alone imminent our correspondent The Snake looked inside the mind of a singlehanded offshore racer and reported from the start in New York while we caught up with Emma Richards. In the States James Boyd looked at the form in the 13 strong fleet. 15 September saw the departure of the singlehanded round the world race from New York with Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm taking the lead. Crossing the North Atlantic to Brixham, Devon Thierry Dubois notched up a 400 mile day run, but first home on leg one was Stamm. Behind Emma Richards was fighting hard to pick up third place. Our slytherin commentor The Snake, brought us the behind the scenes gossip from Brixham.

The Louis Vuitton Cup machine was beginning to whirr and Mark Chisnell gave some insight into the last minute preparations at OneWorld while Le Defi Areva's Sebastien Destramau sent us an amusing account about the lengths teams go to to prevent spying. Ian Budgen brought us up to date with progress in GBR Challenge (see part two). In the States the outcome of the Reeves v OneWorld suit reached its conclusion. The week prior to the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup saw a massive parade through the streets of Auckland. We looked at the new and complicated single and double chance system introduced this year for the Louis Vuitton Cup.

It was all change at the top of the Volvo Ocean Race management with Andy Hindley replacing Michael Woods at Director of Race Operations and Glenn Bourke taking over as CEO from Helge Alten.

The Tornado Worlds in Martha's Vineyard was won by Sydney silver medallists Darren Bundock and John Forbes. Down the road in Marblehead, Bill Abbott picked up the Soling World title after 35 year of sailing in the class. Despite being tied with two other boats going into the final day of racing at the Champagne Mumm Mumm 30 Worlds, Italian 2001 World Champion Guiseppe Abba retained his title aboard Alina (ITA).

The Snipe Western Hemisphere and Orient Championship in Long Beach Americans Augie Diaz and Jon Rogers narrowly beat Brazilian world champions Alexandre Paradeda and Flavio Fernandes.

For us the biggest news at this time was the purchase of madforsailing by International Sailing Media Ltd and the site's relaunch at The Daily Sail.