Today's Sailing News 

Club Med Breaks 24 hour record

It was announced Sunday morning that the Race Class catamaran Club Med had broken the record for distance sailed in a 24 hour period.  Club Med was sailing between Cadiz Spain and the Bahamas on the Discovery Route qualification passage for The Race.

In 24 hours, Club Med sailed 625.7 miles.  This is the first time a sail powered vessel has broken the 625 miles barrier.  Club Med averaged 26.07 knots during the 24 hour period.

According to co-skipper Grant Dalton: "We sailed on the same tack for the whole 24 hours with just one reef."

Further information from on board is as follows: "In 27-28 knots of wind, with full main, the boat was doing between 30 and 33 knots with peaks of up to 37 knots ! It was magic to see! During the 24 hours, we drove the boat at 90 to 95% of her potential, then 100% for the last 8 hours."  

With one record in hand, and on pace for another Club Med's debut looks the most successful of the Race Class catamarans.

The team of Jeff Madrigali, Craig Healy and Hartwell Jordan will represent the US in the Soling in the upcoming Sydney Olympics. By winning 35 of 40 match races they advance to Sydney.

Madrigali's team went through the round robins 21-0. In the semi finals against Andy Horton's team they also went undefeated 7-0.

In the finals they were finally beaten. Ed Baird's team won races 1,6,7,10& 11. This was not enough as Madrigali's team won races 2,3,4,5,8,9, and 12.

Sunday in England Racing in the Finn Gold Cup began.  One race was sailed.  The venue is Weymouth, England.

Race 1 was won by Fredrik Loof of Sweden.  2nd was David Meller of Great Britain with Mateusz Kusznierwicz of Poland 3rd.  

Winner of the US Olympic trials Russ Silvestri was 12th.  Silvestri must finish well enough in the Gold Cup to clinch a spot in the Olympic fleet.

Southern Star posted a solid final day with a 3rd and a 4th. The third was 1 place ahead of Samba Pa Ti, the 4th four points ahead of Samba. This put them 11 points ahead for the regatta. 3rd overall was Atlanti 17 points back of Samba.

Race winners on the final day of the classes 3rd world championship regatta were: Phish Food and Orion.

For the time being the winds for both the mono and multi hull fleets have dropped.  Both fleets are sailing in under 10 knots of wind.

Leading is the trimaran Groupamma.  Frank Cammas' tri is 719 miles from the finish in Newport.  This equates to 2 plus days of racing in increasingly congested waters.

Following Groupama is Eure Et Loir 32 miles back with Foncia another 14 miles astern.  

Lalou Roucayrol has been taken off the capsized Banque Populaire.  The 60 foot trimaran capsized Saturday and then turtled when her leeward float broke.  Roucayrol will touch land in Boston after being picked up by a container ship.

The Class I monohulls see a match race for the lead.  Currently Sill skippered by Roland Jourdain has a mere 4 mile lead over Kingfisher and Ellen Macarthur.  Both are in force 2 conditions between 201 and 211°.

As the picture below shows lite air conditions have not been the rule.  From Kingfisher Ellen Macarthur reports: "I'm cold and exhausted. Its pretty freezing out here, and I've been sail changing and tacking for the past few hours as we pass through another small front."  With these conditions Ellen report, "Glad I have my southern ocean sleeping bag here"

For both mono and multi hulls the closer they come to Newport and the finish the lighter the wind looks.  From Sill Rolan Jourdain reports:". It would be fantastic to be approaching the finish in Newport still in match-racing mode though!”  A match racing type finish in Open 60 monohull occurred at the end of last years Jacques Vabre transat.   In this testing finish Jourdain was dropped down to 4th, so he may want to gain revenge.