AsianYachting November News

Route du Rhum Virtual Regatta - Felicitations! Capt Marty Arrivee...
By AsianYachting MultiMedia
12th Nov: St Malo, France - Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe - Without getting cold, wet or miserable, our very own Capt Marty (AUS) based in PD, Malaysia breasted the finish line off Point-à-Pitre, just after 10 hrs 09 mins 25 secs (Friday, CET/Paris). With an Elapsed time of 11 Days 21 hrs 6 mins in the Virtual 2010 Route du Rhum - La Banque Postale Regatta.

A very tired and drained Capt Marty said after ghosting along at 1.5 knots towards the finish line "Glad to finish now as the wind has shut down out there and the Guadeloupe region is shrouded in the doldrums!!! Pity for the other 246,408 entrants behind us. Considering we only worked out, how to Log-On, 18 hours after the race started, back in 56,259th place, for nearly 12 days we have skillfully played the wind angles, round the outside on the northern route and proudly worked our way up into 3592th place".

The real solo Transatlantic Race started with 85 craft from Saint-Malo, France at 1302hrs (CET) Sunday 31st October. As it is billed the "Most exciting race of the year" and not being able to be there in person, we just could not resist testing our navigation and sailing skills, and joined the virtual regatta.

With an elapsed time of 11 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes Capt Marty's average speed was 15.28 kts after sailing about 4356 miles. Over the theoretical course distance of 3539 miles, Capt Marty's average speed is 12.41 knots. He finished 2 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, 01 seconds behind Franck Cammas (Groupama 3) the real race winner in the Ultime Class. Cammas finished 16hrs 16min 47secs (CET) on Tuesday 09th November. Surely we deserve at least a T-Shirt prize for effort. What do you say Sebastion?

Our friends INGMAR and phyveremy got off to a quick start and choose the Southerly option available to them at the time. When they becalmed mid Atlantic, we went around the outside (Like Buffalo Girls) to the north and got the march on them when the remnants of Hurricane Tomas crossed our path. At finish time INGMAR was in 17,567th place with 266nm to go and phyveremy feed up back in 31,826 place with 473nm to go. My commiserations! Thank you for the virtual champagne!!!

What a Wonderful World the internet has turned into. We finished the R du R game, just in time for the 16th Asian Games multi billion $$ Opening Ceremony extravaganza, live on Astro SuperSport direct from Guangzhou, China. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao rushed back from the G20 Seoul Summit in South Korea to declare open the Games in the middle of the Pearl River on Haixinsha Island, to the thunderous explosion of a massive fireworks display on near-by residential buildings and the 610-metre high Canton Tower as a backdrop. Nearly 10,000 athletes from 45 countries will be contesting 42 sports. Other countries should check your local TV listings. We hope to see some sailing when it starts next week...

Eight dinghy, four windsurfing, one Hobie catamaran class and match racing in J80 keelboats will be taking place at the Guangdong Ocean Sports Training Centre (GOSTC) in Shanwei, China in conjunction with the Chinese Yachting Association from November 12-27. From all reports, we have been assured that daily updates and photos will be posted on the Asian Sailing Federation (ASAF) and the official Guangzhou Asian Games websites. Although China is expected to dominate the games, the Malaysian Olympic Council based on the recent Commonwealth Games medal haul are targeting 9 maybe 10 gold medals at these games.

The MYA Sailing Team are a little more optimistic and aiming for five medals in the dinghy classes and after the recent Malaysian Match Racing Championship hope the keelboat team (See photo) have garnered enough experience to finish on the podium. This region also bore the brunt of Typhoon Megi when it came ashore and the conditions for the Games are expected to be windy with a 2-3 meter ocean swell rolling in. Imagine sailing an Optimist and disappearing into the wave troughs. Can't wait to see some photos! This will be a welcome change from the usual light conditions experienced in Asia and present new and unique challenges to all the competing sailors. Bring it on!!!

If you are not sick of watching sailing on the screen, follow the Velux 5 Oceans - As Brad Van Liew leads the 5 boat fleet into Cape Town (See Race Viewer) and expected to cross finish line this Sunday.

Or alternatively take in the Live Action from the Louis Vuitton Trophy - Dubai from Sunday November 14th to 27th broadcast daily on our LVT - AYTV and SAIL TV channels. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airline and Principal Sponsor of the event, will enter the UAE annals as the last Louis Vuitton Trophy to be sailed on the current generation of America's Cup Class monohulls. The IACC has been used in five different versions, with a total of 100 completed units, starting at the 28th AC edition in San Diego during 1992 and ending at the 32nd America's Cup, held in Valencia in 2007.

The Mascalzone Latino Audi Team or popularly known as the Latin 'Rascals' (Challenger of Record for the 34th America’s Cup) will have to face BMW ORACLE Racing (Defender of the 34th America’s Cup), Emirates Team Zealand, Russia’s Synergy, the French-German team ALL4One and Artemis from Sweden (Challenger for AC34) in two Round Robin knockout series before advancing into the Semi Finals and the winner take all Grand Final.to complete the Louis Vuitton Trophy - WSTA cycle.

On Sunday AYTV Live Streaming with action replays can be accessed from http://asianyachting.com/AYTV.htm It's still a bit hit and miss and fully dependant on your line speed. As the streaming often gets hung up, don't be frightened to click on REFRESH or toggle around between the three players to find something that suites you.

The lesser known International Yachting News outlets, like AsianYachting are forever thankful to SAIL TV for turning this rare MultiMedia opportunity into a reality. Oh! Did I happen to mention that it's completely FREE and EASY for any dumb website media type to use. Also do you know, how much social media effects sailing trends & don't worry, the FB generation will show the Flintstone's the way... More on that latter!
Meanwhile Enjoy!
Capt Marty

All the 2010-11 News, Views and Race Reports can be found Here...

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