Issue Five, Happy New Year

The last in our five part review of 2002 in sailing. This issue concentrates on the final three months of the year. The America’s Cup, Olympic Qualification, the final rankings of the year, and a pletora of offshore races.

The last period of the year started with the event everyone was talking about. The Louis Vuitton Cup trials for the XXXI America’s Cup began with nine syndicates battling on the Hauraki Gulf off New Zealand’s City of Sails, Auckland. By the end of the year only two would remain in the formula one of yachting, preparing to decide who to face the defenders, Team New Zealand. From the outset there developed a definite pecking order – with the almost obvious feeling that two boats were better than one and experience paid ultimate dividends over youth and flair. The affectionately named ‘Italian Rascals’ were the first to go, followed at the end of the quarter finals by GBR Challenge and Le Defi Areva.

At the end of October a new ACC designer emerged in the form of Prada Syndicate head instigating a redesign of their bow between round robin one and two after effectively evicting experienced designer Doug Peterson. The move seemed to pay off as Prada reached the semi finals before succumbing to the might of the ex-TNZ skipper Russell Coutts and the Swiss Challenge of Alinghi.

As we go into the new year it is clear that a Kiwi will definitely win the America’s Cup, either Coutts, Chris Dickson with Oracle BMW Racing, or the young protégé Dean Barker for the defenders. It will be interesting to see where, if they are the ultimate victors, Alinghi will choose to host the next Cup. I don’t think there’s ever much wind on Lake Geneva during the summer. Apparently Barcelona’s nice though!

Many of the knocked out syndicates are spending the festive season in Auckland, either training or soaking up the carnival atmosphere leading to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final next month, and the ultimate cup match in March.

During October and November, the Atlantic Ocean was battered by almost constant and ferocious storms. Unfortunately there were quite a few boats in the way and as the singlehanded transatlantic race, the Route du Rhum got underway, much of the 60 foot Multihull class either became catamarans or monohulls, or simply fell over, with or without the mast.

Ellen MacArthur added another high profile race win to her accolades, with the usual two handed red flare salute at the finish in Guadeloupe. She beat veteran singlehanded sailor Mike Golding by the smallest of margins and both boats smashed the race record.

Ellen’s race win came perfectly alongside the announcement of Kingfisher’s purchase of the Giant Catamaran Orange, which has now been renamed Kingfisher2 for an attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy, meanwhile the long awaited launch of Maiden II’s Jules Verne attempt was put on hold again, and it was revealed that the two boats would not be on a Round the World Voyage at the same time.

Roland ‘Bilou’ Jourdain (FRA), despite losing his boat in the Route du Rhum, was crowned the IMOCA 60 world champion, a popular winner and a title deserving of his determination and sailing ability.

The Around Alone fleet started and finished their second leg from Torbay to Cape Town, despite a forced pit stop in Europe for most boats due to those hardcore Atlantic Storms, Bernard Stamm on Bayer Ascencia is beginning to assert his authority in a race where traditionally, the leader going into the southern Ocean doesn’t continue after the Southern Ocean. The boats are currently en route to Tauranga in New Zealand, in the Southern Ocean.

Meanwhile the Clipper 2002 race fleet set sail from Liverpool only a day late on their epic, multi stop race around the world, kept in port by those Atlantic Storms.

The Rolex Middle Sea Race between Malta and Sicily saw boats witnessing possibly a once in a lifetime occurance as they were going round the Italian island with an almost perfect view of the eruption of mount Etna. The race was eventually won by the Volvo 60, Nautor Challenge.

The world championship and Olympic qualification season for 2002 came to a close with the Mistral World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand with first of all the surprise withdrawal of Lee Lai Shan (HKG) due to illness and the unexpected yet fascinating results in the final races. This brought 2002 to a close from the Olympic point of view with the following nations qualified at the first hurdle. Olympic Pages

2002 Qualified Nations

October saw voting for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards commence with gusto, as each of the ISAF Member National Authorities submitted their votes for each of the male and female Awards, by the deadline of 28 October 2002. Not surprisingly, those already nominated continued to achieve, with Adrienne Cahalan and Helena Darvelid crewing Steve Fossett on Playstation to claim back the Round Britain and Ireland Record on 25 October, and Sofia Bekatorou and Emilia Tsoulfa defending their 2001
470 World Championship.

The ISAF President, Paul Henderson, in his monthly epistles continued to address and challenge the issues facing the sport, with October focusing on the “services to sailors” which ISAF provides, as first and foremost, “the rules and regulations whereby we can participate and compete in the sport of Sailing”.

Paul addressed the different demands and pressures at different levels of the sport, noting that ISAF should not impose onerous regulations on those who are competing purely for the love of the game with no financial reward, but that for those at elite level some of the major issues included Measurement, Race Management, Enforcement of Rules and Anti-Doping. Comment from readers did not raise quite as much attention as previous subjects but needless to say it was received including “This is excellent! The President is spot on when he stresses the differing requirements between the ‘professional’ side of the sport – Olympics, Americas Cup, Volvo, etc – and the rest. And even more so when he says It is also essential that the sailors who race purely for the love of the game with no financial rewards expected are allowed to compete free from onerous regulations and that they have the flexibility to adapt the regulations to their needs.’

Busan, Korea, was host to the XIV Asian Games, the region’s biggest event since the 1988 Olympics, with the sailing regatta taking place at the same Olympic venue. The sailing regatta saw fierce competition in the fifteen events, which included Olympic Classes alongside the OK Dinghy and Enterprise, amongst others. Final Report

The Cook Islands continued to benefit from ‘>Olympic Solidarity Funding’> with the confirmation in October by Olympic Solidarity that approval had been given to the Cook Islands’ application to run a “co-ordinated coaching programme” to both train young sailors and their coaches.

The ISAF Classification Code (code that determines between amateur and professional status for those events applying such a rule) received some knocks with a few people claiming it discriminated against those work within the marine industry by treating them the same as those who are paid professionally to sail. Countering the misinformation on the Code, Antony Matusch, Chairman of the ISAF Classification Panel, responded:

“Contrary to what some may think, the Code does not automatically make sailors who work in the industry Group 3 – many, in fact, have been rated Group 1 or 2. classification is based on a sailor’s financial involvement in boat racing, and/or the use in their work of knowledge or skill capable of improving the performance of a boat in a race, not specifically on racing success or prowess. To help sailors the panel plans to issue Guidance Notes and FAQ’s shortly.

On 23 October 2002, the late Sir Peter Blake was honoured by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with the presentation by His Majesty King Constantine of the IOC Olympic Order, which was accepted by Lady Pippa Blake on her late husband’s behalf at Emsworth Sailing Club, Emsworth, Great Britain. The Olympic Order was awarded to pay tribute to Sir Peter Blake’s outstanding sailing career and to his genuine passion for sport and adventure. His Majesty King Constantine, Honorary Member of the IOC and President of Honour of the International Sailing Federation, made the presentation on behalf of the IOC and in dedicating the Order to the late Sir Peter said:

“Sir Peter was an incredibly impressive man. Through his sheer skill and determination, he had succeeded at the top of our sport. He was a man who inspired people, sailors and non-sailors alike.

Peter’s death was a tragic and grave loss. But his sailing achievements, his environmental projects and his outstanding character will live on. He was a gentleman.”

Following on from their Sydney 2000 Athlete Scholarship Programme, Olympic Solidarity announced some of the athletes who would receive scholarships for Athens 2004, including several sailors:
Ehud Gal (TUR) – 470 Men
Gideon Kliger (TUR) – 470 Men
Przemysla Miarczynski (POL) – Mistral Men
Chi Ho Ho (HKG) – Mistral Men
Allan Julie (SEY) – Laser Open
Georgiy Leonchuk (UKR) – 49er Open
Rodion Luka (UKR) – 49er Open
Florencia Cerutti (ARG) – Europe Women
Tatiana Drozdovskaya (BLR) – Europe Women
Irina Konstantinova (BUL)- Mistral Women

The Scholarship Programme provides essential financial support for the preparation and qualification of a nation’s athletes for the 2004 Olympics, placing athletes from developing countries on an equal footing with their counterparts from the regions of the world which do not have the same needs, enabling them to train to fulfil their ability and potential. Olympic Solidarity also came to the benefit of sailing, with the awarding of an Olympic Scholarship for Coaches to Jonathan Barbe (SEY), which will provide funding to enable high level training which can afterwards be applied to the benefit of the applicant’s national sports structures.

Another branch of the Olympic Movement, the Athletes Forum, met towards the end of October to discuss various issues effecting elite athletes. ISAF was represented by Michaela Ward (DEN) an ISAF Committee Member and Olympic sailor in the 470 Class –Women’s Mistral sailors in the rankings.

After making class history as the first Brits to ever win the Star Worlds and gaining a nomination for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards, Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell went on to win the final Grade One event of the year the Star Europeans in October and continued their phenomenal ascent of the rankings. Entering at number 156 in February this year, Percy and Mitchell finish the year at number 2, only 31 points behind Reynolds and Sperry and in a ranking list of 328 crews.

In total in 2002, there were 37 ISAF Grade 1 events, 9 of which were Women’s Match Racing and 11 Open Match Racing events and 44 ISAF Grade 2 events.

That concludes our review off 2002 in sailing, we hope you have enjoyed reliving the highlights and events of the last 12 months and wish everybody a happy and prosperous new year.