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The outcome of the 2010 Open 470 European Championships remained in the balance until the final leg of the men’s medal race. Just five points separated the top six men’s 470 teams going into the contest that was sailed in strong and gusty winds. Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis GRE then once more proved their prowess in these conditions, scoring another bullet to secure their first European championship, at the same time condemning Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela ISR to second in the race and overall. It was Kliger’s third time as a runner up in the Europeans. In third place Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell GBR, who led the fleet after into the medal race, but sailed a high-risk strategy (including a port start) that failed them. Finishing fifth, they were happy to secure Bronze.
Series leaders Emmanuelle Rol/Helene Defrance FRA struck a windward mark during the women’s medal race and had to take a penalty turn, but managed to stay ahead of their rivals and finish third, winning Gold by 18 points over Giulia Conti/Giovanna Micol ITA and Ingrid Petitjean/Nadege Douroux FRA, who took Bronze while Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron FRA slipped from second to fourth overall.
Earlier in the day the remainder of the 92 competing teams completed one final fleet race. Best of the rest were Matthias Schmid/Florian Reichstaedter AUT finishing 11th and edging Stu McNay/Graham Biehl USA who slipped to 12th. Reigning Junior World and European Champions Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion FRA secured victory in the Silver fleet. The report, all results and the gallery..

The first day of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2010 saw 47 boats competing on the seas off the northeastern coast of Sardinia in a light 7 to 8 knot NNW breeze. In the Mini Maxi World Championship ‘Alegre’ (Andy Soriano) GBR won out over ‘Shockwave (Neville Crichton) NZL and ‘Ran’ (Niklas Zennstrom) GBR. ‘Ranger’ CAY won the battle of the J-Class boats over ‘Velsheda’ GBR.
The remaining divisions, the Super Maxis with the 45.2 m ‘Saudade’ (Albert Buell) MLT and the 45-meter ‘Salperton’, completed a coastal race of 30 nautical miles. ‘Hamilton II’ corrected out over ‘Saudade’ and ‘Gliss’ (Marco Vogele) SUI. In the Racing/Racer Cruiser division ‘Esimet Europa 2’ (Ex Alfa Romeo/Igor Simicic) SLO, skippered by Flavio Favini ITA, won ahead of ‘Highland Fling’ (Irvine Laidlaw) MON and ‘DSK Pioneer’ (Danilo Salsi) ITA. ‘J One’ (Jean-Charles Decaux) FRA took first place in the Wally division followed by Y3K (Claus Peter Offen) GER and ‘Dark Shadow’ (Andrè Auberton) GBR. Racing continues today, with SSE winds of up to 25 knots in the afternoon. The report, thegallery and the tracking page (needs Google Earth).

The famous windsurf beach of Almanarre in Hyères FRA is the site of the fourth and last event in the women's PWA Slalom World Cup. Alas thus far only three heats were sailed on opening day (Sat.) due to lack of wind. Ahead with three bullets is Valérie Ghibaudo-Arrighetti FRA, followed by Karin Jaggi SUI, who leads the World Cup overall standings. She need s a second here to ice another title. Details on the PWA tour site, including videos and an interview with Jaggi in the daily report. Forecast promises Mistral for tomorrow.

Yesterday, US ocean racer Brad Van Liew set sail from Charleston South Carolina for La Rochelle, for the start of the Velux 5 Oceans Race next month onboard his Eco 60 racer ‘Le Pingouin’. The boat underwent a thorough refit as it has several times before when it had done business as ‘Whirlpool,’ ‘Tiscali,’ ‘Global Challenge’ and ‘Pro Form’. The 42-year-old will sail about 3000 nautical miles across the Atlantic and use the passage as a qualifying sail and as a shakedown cruise to test electronics, sails, communication systems and hardware. On October 25, Van Liew and seven others will begin their 30,000-mile solo journey around the planet. Stopovers are set for Cape Town RSA, Wellington NZL, Salvador BRA, Charleston USA before returning to the finish in La Rochelle. It will be Van Liew’s third race after 1998/99 and 2002/03 editions, winning class two in the latter race. More on the Team Lazarus Web site and on the Velux 5 Oceans site.

After 10 races, Franco Solerio ITA with Branco Brcin SLO calling tactics is the X-35 World Champion ahead of four other Italian teams. In the X-41 sailed at the same occasion, Pier Vettor Grimani ITA, another Italian team, took the European title. The final report.

Yesterday was the first day of racing at the 5.5 Metre World Championship 2010 at Circolo Vela Torbole with 30 boats from nine countries. On a typical breezy lake Garda day, top Star sailor Flavio Marazzi SUI (2) got two bullets to lead the standings, followed by Christoph Burger NOR (5) and Kristian Nergaard NOR (8). Prior to the Worlds, Nergaard sailing with Peer Moberg and Petter Morland Pedersen won the tune-up event, the Scandinavian Gold Cup by beating Bernard Haissly SUI in the sail-off. It was Nergaard's third consecutive win of a unique regatta which is won by the boat that first wins three races. All boats that have not won a race after three heats are excused from competition. Get the details.

Dame Ellen MacArthur says she learnt about sustainability from her experiences sailing around the world. She told BBC Radio 5: "Having collected everything I would need for my survival for two and a half months and having to manage it...I had a real idea of the notion of finite." MacArthur has set up an educational foundation to promote sustainability. Key objectives include: To provide a framework for change through inspirational content, education programs and communication. To help seed the future economy with people with the knowledge and skills to build a sustainable future. To engage with industry and showcase what is already happening in this area and challenge the status quo. For more of ellen's plans, visit the Foundation's Web site.

Remarkable fleets on most lakes for a perfect regatta weekend with sun and a good breeze. As always, the Sailing Switzerland section provides for reports and results.

It took some doing on the last and windiest day of the 2010 Laser World Championship, but Tom Slingsby AUS, who also turned 26 yesterday, clinched his third title in four years and his second world championship in the last two weeks, after also winning the Etchells as crew for John Bertrand. After Slingsby had scored a safe sixth in the penultimate race, the last contest should have been more of the same, which it was until he found himself upside down as the breeze gusted to 23 knots. Somehow he got back up in a hurry and fought his way back to 14th, which sealed the win and a mega-cushion of 36 points. That’s because his closest rival in the overall standings, Nick Thompson GBR, also elected to run his capsize drill, which turned a possible top-three finish into a discard. In the end he had to be content with the crown prince’s honors, ahead of Andrew Murdoch NZL who had a strong day with 8-1 to return to the podium when it mattered and secure bronze for the second year in a row. Julio Alsogaray ARG, who saved his best sailing for last, finished fourth overall, ahead of Pavlos Kontides CYP, who sunk his medal chances with a 32nd in the very last race, which he was unable to discard. Defending champ Paul Goodison GBR was busy with damage control, won the first race of the day and booked a 10th to end in 9th overall. In the Silver fleet Dave Wright CAN remained on top, followed by Clayton Johnson USA and a surging Karol Porozynski POL, who had a 1-2 on the final day.
In the Junior World Championship Thorbjoern Schierurp DEN posted a third at the end to hold off Francesco Marrai ITA and Alex Mills-Barton GBR who took Silver and Bronze, respectively. The report, and the RYA video page with the day’s summaries (and an interview with Finn world champion Ed Wright).

With just the medal race remaining, the outcome of the 2010 Open 470 European Championships is far from clear. Two races in the gusty and shifty waters of Istanbul reshuffled the order of the men’s fleet, and now just 5 points separate the top six teams. The dice rolled right for Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell GBR who scored 5/1 to lead the men’s standings before today’s medal race. Next are Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela ISR, Pangiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis GRE and Sime Frantela/Igor Marenic CRO. It will be a hot race because the next two teams, Leboucher/Garos FRA and Kampouridis/Polychronidis GRE, are only three points behind the defending champs from Croatia. In the Silver fleet Sofian Bouvet/Jérémie Mion FRA have a 9-point lead over Dubbini/Dubbini ITA.
In the women’s fleet, Emmanuelle Rol/Helene Defrance FRA now hold a 10-point advantage over Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron FRA and 14 over Giulia Conti/Giovana Micol ITA. Final fleet race for everyone outside the Top 10 at 11 am local time with the women’s medal race following at 3 pm local and the men’s at 3:45 pm local. The report, all results and the live tracker.

On the final day of the St. Moritz Match Race, the Maloja wind kicked in and Mathieu Richard FRA buckled down to grind out the necessary race wins for the title. Richard and Adam Minoprio NZL advanced from the quarters with one win only and got dusted in the first race of the semis. Richard lost to Ben Ainslie GBR while Minoprio fell to Ian Williams GBR. It looked like an all-Brits final was in the making, but Richard took the next two from Ainslie to advance despite having to do a penalty turn in the decisive third match. Williams kept the upper hand over Minoprio with 2-1 and faced Richard in the finals. They split the first two and Richard proved to be the master of the Maloja puffs to pull out the final win that earned him the big check and an extra cushion in the overall standings of the World Match Racing Tour, which he leads. Minoprio beat Ainslie in the petit final. The next tour event is on the island of Bornholm, Denmark next week. The report with the results and the 'Play of the Day' video with Minoprio hanging not one, but two penalties on Williams.

The Finn Gold Cup 2010 in the Frisco Bay - a windy and rough event - ended on Saturday with the outstanding victory of Ed Wright GBR also in the Medal Race. Silver and Bronze went to Rafael Trujillo ESP and Giles Scott GBR - here the final results and the official final report.
The media coverage was also excellent: All races with interiews are available on video clips. The individual races can also be reviewed by means of GPS-tracking.

The Boating Industry is confident about a coming upswing of the economy in general and its own business outlook. The INTERBOOT open from September 18 to 26, 2010 demonstrates this with the attractive products on exhibition. The new motor-boats are speed and fun oriented, and also in the sailing yachts, performance boats including comfort in the cabin prevail. A preview (PDF).

The larger version of the popular and successful Esse 850, the Esse 990, which had been shown to the public at the Friedrichshafen Boat Show, is for sale at a 20-percent discount off list price, which includes aluminum trailer, carbon mast and boom and 3DL North sails. The boat is lightly used as it was sailed in a few long-distance races on the Jura lakes in Switzerland. See the detailed equipment list and specs. More information at info@boatcom.ch.

Sun and a 2-3 bft thermal breeze prevailed on the last day of the H-Boat Swiss Championship on Lake Thoune where the races nbr 6 and 7 were sailed yesterday. Thanks to the higher number of race wins, Walter Pulz/Robert Huber/Manuel Bume GER defended their title from the previous year ahead of Knut Viehweger/Sabine Viehweger/Heinz Kirchhoff GER with the same points result. George Kugler/Peter Graf/Steven Kugler SUI/RVB are on the 3rd place. The results and the final report.

Good sailing conditions prevailed yesterday off Geneva on day two of the Cup La Réserve of the D35-cats, where another three races could be completed. Ernesto Bertarelli with his 'Alinghi' succeeded to replace the leader of the first day Alain Gautier FRA with his 'Foncia' on top. With two race wins, Pascal Bidégorry FRA ('Banque Populaire') advanced on the 3rd place. The results and the report.
With this outcome, the first multis of the overall rankings have come even closer: Before the 8th and last act of the Annual Cup mid-September, 'Banque Populaire' is 1 pt ahead of 'Foncia' and 3 pts in front of 'Alinghi'.

Ed Wright GBR destroyed the rest of the world’s Finn elite. It’s as simple as that. In the process he also shed the distinction of "Best ever, who never won a Gold Cup." With surgical precision Wright added another bullet in the medal race yesterday in mellower conditions than usual. It was his fifth in 11 races at the 2010 Finn Gold Cup and a fitting end of his title bid that put him 31 points clear of Rafael Trujillo ESP, who was lucky to hold off Giles Scott GBR and win Silver. Three points behind the British-Spanish sandwich was Zach Railey USA, who took second in the medal race, his first top-three result of the week. In fifth Thomas Le Breton FRA. The rest of the fleet sailed too with Daniel Birgmark SWE getting his second bullet of the week to finish in 12th overall, behind Marin Misura CRO and ahead of Jonathan Lobert FRA. Top junior was Caleb Paine USA who sailed to an eighth place in Race 11 for 28th overall. The event Web site, the final standings, the chopper shots and the YouTube Channel.

Tom Slingsby AUS is two steps removed from his third Laser World Championship after scoring two bullets yesterday on another English summer day in 15-16 knots of breeze. With speed to burn and conservative starts he finished far ahead of his nearest rivals in both races, building a 32-point lead in the Gold fleet standings. The champagne is on ice, but before Slingsby gets the winner’s dousing (and a birthday hug for turning 26), he needs two more solid races today since he already carded his throwouts. Defending champ Paul Goodison GBR continued his slide into oblivion after getting yellow-flagged twice in the first race for excessive body kinetics. His second disqualification in as many days plunged the Olympic champion to 19th overall. Nick Thompson GBR was expected to challenge Slingsby, but sailed a real discard with a 17th after being forced to do penalty turns and playing catch-up. A 12th in the second race salvaged his chances for Silver. Angling for a podium finish is Jean-Baptiste Bernaz FRA, who benefited from a mixed day for the Kiwis and scored 15/3 to move up to third, right into the crosshairs of Pavlos Kontides CYP, the expat from Cyprus, who's one point behind. The Silver fleet has Dave Wright CAN in the lead followed by Clay Johnson USA.
Punchy starting helped Thorbjoern Schierup DEN to leap into the leader’s position in the Juniors rankings after the first two final races, which he both won. Behind, but tied on points is longstanding leader Francesco Marrai ITA. Alex Mills-Barton GBR is third, 13 pts ahead of Filip Jurisic CRO. The report, all results and the video summary.

A rollercoaster ride in moderate to light conditions rattled the standings at both medal races for the RS:X World Championship in Kerteminde DEN. There were dramatic position changes in both fleets with the final podium positions fluctuating by the minute as each race progressed. A new challenge for the surfers was posed by the weeds that washed into the ocean during a torrential downpour on Friday. In the men’s fleet, Piotr Myszka POL had to come back from dead last to win the medal race and beat out his compatriot Przemyslaw Miarczynski. Third place for Nimrod Mashiah ISR. It’s Poland ’s first World Championship in the RS:X, although Miarczynski won in the Mistral class in 2003. The silver fleet was won by Ben Barger USA. Equally exciting was the women’s medal race, where Blanca Manchon ESP won the medal race and pipped 40-year old Alessandra Sensini ITA in the post, who finished sixth thus losing her bid for a fourth world title by a mere point. In third Charline Pichon FRA, winning the tiebreaker over Bryony Shaw GBR for bronze. Winner of the ladies silver fleet was Kate Ellingham NZL, by a half point over Tuuli Petaja FIN. Farrah Hall USA finished 26th. The report, the final results and the YouTube channel.

Light and patchy breezes on the penultimate day of the finals at 2010 Open 470 European Championships appeared tailor made for two French teams in the women’s division. Emanuelle Rol/Helene Defrance FRA got two thirds and moved into the lead, one point clear of their teammates Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron FRA, who had two seconds. Defending champs and Friday’s leaders Giulia Conti/Giovanna Micol ITA are in third after a sub-par day, eight points off the lead.
Sailing the shifts rather than the fleet was the secret of success for Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis GRE, who carded two fifths to extended their advantage over Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela ISR to six points. The Israelis had a bullet today to step up to second overall, two points ahead of Panagiotis Kampouridis/Theodoros Polychronidis GRE. Where are the Croatians who looked so good so far? Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic, the defending champs, slipped, tripped and tumbled to fifth, behind Nicholas Charbonnier/Baptiste Meyer-Dieu FRA who won a race yesterday.
In the men’s Silver fleet, the points remain very tight with Joonas and Niklas Lindgren FIN holding on to the lead by a single point from 470 Junior World and European Champions, Sofian Bouvet/Jeremie Mion FRA. Stronger breeze possible for today’s last two fleet races, say the Greek, who have proven to know a thing or two about this place. Medal race on Monday. The report, all results and the gallery.

On a frustrating day for the six teams battling to reach the semi-finals of the St. Moritz Match Race, perhaps the biggest fight was off the water between the gradient northerly wind and the thermally induced southerly, which left the racecourse peppered with monumental wind shifts, holes and gusts.
Ben Ainslie GBR riding some luck but also considerable skill was the first and only one to advance to the semis yesterday sweeping Bjorn Hansen SWE. Adam Minoprio NZL slipped by Damien Iehl at the last second, coming from way behind for a 1-0 lead had, just like Mathieu Richard FRA holds a 1-0 lead over veteran Bertrand Pacé FRA. They’ll finish the quarters to find out who’ll join Ian Williams GBR the top seed in the semis and Ainslie. The report with the results and a video.

The X-35-Worlds title will be Italian at the end of the last race day today. After 9 races sailed, the Italian teams occupy the positions 1-5 with Franco Solerio ITA in the lead with a 6 pts advantage over Gianluca Vigano ITA. The results.
An Italian success also in view in the European Championship of the X-41: Andrea Tedesco ITA and his team are 4 pts ahead of Pasquale Orofino ITA. The results.

Sunshine and a perfect Séchard breeze for the 12 D35-teams during the first four races of the 'Cup la Réserve' off Versoix yesterday. Alain Gautier FRA with his 'Foncia' is the clear leader with 3 bullets ahead of 'Alinghi' with Ernesto Bertarelli SUI and Arnaud Psarofaghis SUI with the 'Ylliam'. Today, 4 more races are on the program. The event-website and the daily report (PDF).

22 H-Boats have been sailing for the Swiss Champion title on Lake Thoune since last Thursday. Up to now, the thermal breeze was mostly weak to lacking, but nevertheless, 5 race could be completed. In the morning of the last day, the situation is very close as the first 3 teams - Walter Putz GER, George Kugler SUI and Knut Viehweger GER - are separated by 4 pts only, Two races are on the program today. The results and the daily report.

Let’s face it: Leading a world championship on the first day of the finals and getting sacked with a BFD hurts. Just ask Tom Slingsby AUS who experienced that yesterday on the first day of gold fleet racing at the Laser Worlds. Slingsby survived the day with the lead and got a smidgen of relief by the fact that defending champion Paul Goodison GBR and red-hot Michael Bullot NZL committed the same blunder and paid dearly for it. However, Slingsby won’t feel smug, because despite his 13-point cushion on Andrew Maloney NZL, he’s living on the razor’s edge with both discards occupied by fat scores so he can’t afford any mistakes from here on out. It was edgy out there yesterday in moderate breeze and glorious sunshine, but a strong current from leewards produced and an avalanche of 39 BFDs handed out by the RC across all three fleets in both races. One who kept clean was Nick Thompson GBR, who used a 4/2 to move from 7th into 3rd (tied for 2nd) with a tidy score line that includes only one ugly finish at the moment a 25th, which he managed to discard. Slingsby and Maloney will watch for him. In 4th is the intrepid Pavlos Kontides CYP all of a sudden eight points ahead of Goodison, who only managed a 17th in the second race after tangling with a French sailor on the second beat.
After the eight qualifiers finished in the Junior World Championships, Francesco Marrai scored two more bullets to build a 10-point lead over Thorbjoern Schierup DEN and Alex Mills-Barton GBR, who also won both of his group races.
The report, all results and the video summary.

Ed Wright GBR underscored his title ambitions at the Finn Gold Cup on San Francisco Bay winning the day with a third and a first, which was his fourth bullet in 10 races. Before today’s medal race he holds a 13-point margin in the overall standings over Rafael Trujillo ESP, who also did well with 2/5, but can’t seem to quite match Wright’s level of performance and consistency. Don’t discount Giles Scott GBR, either. With a 1/4 score he is lurking in third overall, five points behind the Spaniard and 17 clear of Zach Railey USA, who sailed his discard in race 10. Caleb Paine USA, 28th, is the top junior, only one point clear of Ioannis Mitakis GRE. The gallery and the YouTube channel.

After adding one more qualifying race and the first two races of the finals after the split into gold and silver fleets there's a Greek renaissance to report with new leaders in the men’s division at the 2010 Open 470 European Championships in Istanbul TUR. Racing in strong but shifty breeze and sailing with some panache, Panagiotis Mantis/Pavlos Kagialis GRE took the overall lead from defending champs Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic CRO by a single point. Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela, hold third place just ahead of Panagiotis Kampouridis/Theodoros Polychronidis GRE, who were 2-3 in the first two races of the finals. The Silver fleet is led by Joonas and Niklas Lindgren FIN.
Tough day for the ladies who were out on the water for three long and grueling races with, Giulia Conti/Giovanna Micol ITA holding a 10-point lead over Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer DEN who moved up to 2nd overall with a solid day and Emmanuelle Rol/Helen Defrance FRA. With racing now back on schedule two races will be scheduled for everyone today. The championships conclude with the medal race on Sunday. The report, the results, the gallery and the race tracker.

Light winds prevailed yesterday for the first time after a rather windy initial phase of the RS:X Worlds 2010 off Kerteminde DEN, and the program had to be reduced to one heat per fleet. The leaders in both the men's and women's fleets to book high two-digit results. Despite of sailing the discards, the top three women Alessandra Sensini ITA, Lee-el Korzits ISR and Blanca Manchon ESP defended their places, but the persuers Zofia Klepacka POL, Bryony Shaw GBR and Charline Picon FRA did come very close.
The men's Thursday leader Dorian van Rijsselberge NED arrived on position 38 only and dropped on rank 8 overall. The new leader is Piotr Myszka POL one point ahead of Przemyslav Miarczynski POL and four points on Nimrod Mashiah ISR, followed by Tom Ashley NZL, Julien Bontemps FRA and the day best Toni Wilhelm GER. The results, the videos and the event-website.

Ian Williams GBR (9-2), Ben Ainslie GBR (8-3) and Mathieu Richard FRA (7-4) emerged on top of the leader board after Round robin sailing concluded at the St. Moritz Match Race in solid Maloja wind. It was a dogfight for the remaining four spots in the quarters, with Bertrand Pace FRA (7-4), Björn Hansen SWE, Damien Iehl FRA and Adam Minoprio NZL (all on 6-5 record) making it through. While Minoprio squeaked in on countback, the curtain fell on Francesco Bruni ITA, Torvar Mirsky AUS, Eric Monnin SUI, Johnie Berntsson SWE and Jérôme Clerc SUI. Williams has a bye in the quarters today while the others will determine who will join him in the semis. The report, the gallery and the video feed.

Earl had some roar but luckily not a lot of bite as it skittered up the East Coast, bringing with it breeze, high surf and some rain, but only minor damage, before it was downgraded to a tropical storm and cleared out to sea in time for millions to resume their Labor Day vacations. That means the weather will clear in time for the Annapolis Race Week and the regatta weekend up in New England. In New Jersey, one person went swimming Thursday night and was reported missing. See this report in the WSJ.

Scoring a 1/5 yesterday on the last day of qualifying, Tom Slingsby AUS leads all comers before the decisive final phase at the Laser Worlds in Hayling Island GBR, where the fleets are now split into gold, silver and bronze. On a sparkling summer day, moderate easterlies from 8-11 kn that were accompanied by decent swell, the downhillers in the 159-boat fleet clearly were in their element. Confessing to “schoolboy errors,” as he called his mistakes, Olympic and defending world champion Paul Goodison GBR finally bagged a double-digit score in Race 7. Yet he sits in second, 14 points adrift of Slingsby and two ahead of the two top Kiwis (there are two more in the top eight), Michael Bullot NZL and Andrew Maloney NZL. In 5th the man of the day, Pavlos Kontides CYP, who makes his home in nearby Southampton GBR as a student, rolled two firsts yesterday.
After a layday, the Junior World Championships resumes qualifying with two more races before their four-race finals commence Saturday. In the lead here is Francesco Marrai ITA. The report, all results and the video channel.

Three more qualification races were sailed off Istanbul yesterday in a fresh breeze of up to 20 kn .With the discard result coming into effect, there were major changes on top of the rankings. In the 470 women, Giulia Conti/Giovanna Michol ITA took the lead with two bullets. Emmanuelle Rol/Hélène Defrance FRA follow on rank 2, Petitjean/Douroux FRA are 3rd.
Masterfully the new leaders in the 470 men: With an OCS and 3 bullets, Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell GBR are now on top ahead of Fantela/Marencic CRO and Kliger/Sela ISR.
The event-website and the report.

After another two windy races, the top five at the Finn Gold Cup in San Francisco maintain their relative positions, but leader Ed Wright GBR who scored 2/5 and Rafa Trujillo ESP who does not go quietly and scored 1/2, increased their points cushion over the rest of the fleet in the [url=wxw.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=342 overall standings[/url]. Giles Scott GBR hangs onto third place after placing 3/6, with Thomas Le Breton FRA and Zach Railey USA not far off. Perhaps the most exciting race was Race 8 with a nasty chop and 22 knots of breeze blasting down Berkeley Circle. It ended in a photo finish when Daniel Birgmark SWE pipped defending champion Jonas Høgh Christensen in the post for the win. Looking beyond Wright’s and Scott’s podium aspirations it should be noted that there are two more Brits in the Top 10, with Andrew Mills in 8th and Mark Andrews in 9th.

A more stable breeze between 10 and 18 knots has shuffled the standings in favor of the specialists for breezier conditions. After the two races in the men’s gold fleet finals at the RS:X Worlds in Kerteminde DEN, Dorian van Rijsselberge NED maintains a two-point lead over Piotr Myszka POL who in turn has a two-point advantage over Nimrod Mashiah ISR. In the first race van Rijsselberge came back from 43rd to finish 12th and followed up with a bullet in the next contest, his fourth of the event. The silver fleet is led by Albert Lopes de Carvalho BRA.
In the women’s event, 40-year-old Alessandra Sensini ITA// is enjoying another renaissance here after a 3/1 day and holds a four-point lead over Lee-el Korzits ISR and Blanca Manchon ESP, who all took advantage of the previous frontrunners’ Maja Dziarnowska POL, Charline Picon, FRA or Sasa Sun CHN scoring high yesterday.
Kate Ellingham NZL leads the silver fleet. The report and all results, plus the tracking page.

Two Brits and two French are lodged in the top five after two days of sailing at the St. Mortitz Match Race SUI. Damien Iehl FRA was the aggressor yesterday, racking up five successive victories. His victims included Wednesday’s leader Adam Minoprio NZL and AC skipper Francdesco Bruni ITA. As the Maloja wind rushed in, Iehl exhibited some deft moves, leading Minoprio around mark one by three lengths and eventually extending his lead all the way to the finish. Next on his list was Torvar Mirsky AUS who gained the initial advantage, but Iehl played the shifts well, building an insurmountable lead at the first mark. Meanwhile, Ian Williams GBR (7-1) showed little concern after sweeping his races of the day to defend the overall lead, one point ahead of Ben Ainslie GBR (6-2) and Mathieu Richard FRA (6-2). These three already are qualified for the quarterfinals. The next six led by Minoprio (5-3) and Iehl (5-4) are in the hunt for the remaining four places. The report with all results, the gallery and the videos.

Sun and a moderate seabreeze yesterday at the Tuscany Coast for the races nbr 4-6. The Italian teams - mostly with local professionals like Vasco Vascotto or Flavio Favini calling tactics - could extend their leading positions with five of them on top of the rankings. Franco Solerio ITA leads 2 pts ahead of Enrico Mattia ITA. The X-35-results.
In the X-41 Europeans, sailed back-to-back, Andrea Tedesco ITA remains on top. The rankings.

When there’s wind it’s Slingsby time. The easterlies got into the low to mid-teens, which made for more physical sailing yesterday at the Laser Worlds in Hayling Island GBR. In these conditions Tom Slingsby AUS moved to the top of the overall standings in the senior division, with a score line that shows three bullets in six starts. Sailing extremely smooth and fluid downwind portions, Slingsby served notice that he intends to add world title No. 3 to his trophy case. But then there’s also Paul Goodison GBR, the reigning Olympic and World Champion, who will have a say in this matter. Goody might be in 3rd overall, but is tied on points with Josh Junior NZL who holds 2nd at the moment as one of four Kiwis in the top eight. Unlike most others, Goodison has yet to sail a stinker, although he had to work hard to avoid his first double-digit score yesterday after getting buried deep in the second race. He put on a clinic to salvage a 7th, keeping his title defense on target with all Top-10 finishes.
In the Junior World Championships Francesco Marrai ITA regained his overall lead after a 5th and a 3rd, two points ahead of Thorbjoern Scheirup DEN and five clear of Keerati Bualong THA. The report and the video summary.

Discard time at the Finn Gold Cup in San Francisco where another two races were added in glorious sunshine, starting in mellow breeze that grew more robust during the afternoon. Continuing where he left off on Tuesday, Ed Wright GBR scored another bullet and later added a 3rd place to assume the top spot of the standings with a cozy 13-point cushion. In 2nd Rafa Trujillo ESP, who rebounded from a sub-par Day 2 just ahead of the next Brit Giles Scott. Wright and Trujillo now account for five bullets in those six races. Thomas Le Breton FRA and Zach Railey USA, who held 1st and 2nd Tuesday, slipped off the podium despite consistent sailing but without bullets yet. However, they are close, at least to silver and bronze, or to pounce on the moment when Ed Wright decides to become a mere mortal again. The official report and the Finn YouTube channel with some iPhone videos from yesterday’s races.

It was a crazy, confusing day at the 2010 Open 470 European Championships in Istanbul, yet somehow Gideon Kliger/Eran Sela ISR emerged from their side of the men’s qualifying with two 1st places. The Israeli team made sense of the light, patchy and shifty conditions that left most of the 92 teams quite bewildered. The only team that came close to matching the Israelis’ consistency were the defending European Champions Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic CRO, who scored two 2nd places on the other side of the qualifying split. In 3rd Yurii Zhuralov/Pavlo Matsuyev UKR.
On the women’s side Emmanuelle Rol/Helene Defrance FRA scored 1/3 for the early lead, followed by Camille Lecointre/Mathilde Geron FRA in 2nd and Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer DEN in 3rd. The report and the complete results, the gallery, plus the tracking page.

The opening day of racing at the St. Moritz Match Race dawned bright but cold, with very little wind but intense sailing. After five flights the lead belongs to Adam Minoprio NZL with a 4-1score tied with Ian Williams GBR and Björn Hansen SWE. In fourth is Ben Ainslie GBR at 3-2, the same score as Mathieu Richard FRA. The last race, between Richard and Williams, was also the closest. With 15 seconds to go the French skipper looked much too early, yet he found enough wriggle room to make a perfect start, much to the surprise of the spectator crowds. He led throughout the race by the tightest of margins - at the finish just one meter separated the two boats. The report, the results and the gallery

No sailing at the RS:X World Championships in Kerteminde on layday, but behind the scenes the talk was about securing the future of the class in prepatration for the annual meeting. the talk was about finding a qualified organizer for the 2012 Worlds and the new Danish system to bring the racing to the masses, called ‘Sailstream – You Are the Producer’. It combines the TracTrac tracking system with several channels of video, including one with commentary on the racing streamed live from the water via wireless broadband network.
Of greater concern is the ISAF Olympic Commission and the requirements to keep sailing Olympic, byond keeping the RS:X as the s]windsurfing equipment. This includes a professionally managed class Web site and social media. Another objective is increasing more female competitors to a share of at least 40 percent or even half of the total RS:X fleet and getting boards to ISAF Member National Authorities in as many countries as possible to spread the class globally. Read on.
Racing in the gold and silver fleets is due to get underway today at 1100 local (0900 GMT). 8-10 knots from the ENE is forecast. Dorian Van Rjisselberge NED and Maja Dziarnowska POL are the current overall leaders. The standings and the event site.

US Sailing’s weekend weather forecast talks about the track of hurricane Earl, which is forecast to parallel the US East Coast and create disruptions and quite a bit of chop. It’ll pass close by Cape Hatteras and Outer Banks early Friday as a Category 3 storm. It'll get close to Cape Cod and the Outer Islands as it weakens to a Cat. 2 storm, then it'll move on to the Canadian Maritimes by Saturday, followed by fair weather but rough waters from residual swells. See NOAA’s live tracking page and the story about preparing for New England hurricanes (PDF).

The X-35 Worlds began yesterday with 3 races off Scarlino ITA with the Italians dominating the fleet with 4 teams on top, but the points' gaps are still very small. Gianluca Vigano ITA leads in the results (PDF).
In the X-41 Europeans, sailed at the same time, M.Tedesco ITA is clearly ahead followed by the former Finn European Champion Paolo Semararo ITA. The report.

Part 2 of the 'Windsurfing Movies' full of action follows the Wave specialists searching for the wildest beaches. The website with an online order link. Here some video vrailers.