Olympic Trial Winners

This weekend saw 8 sailors gain a place on the year 2000 United States Olympic sailing team.  3 two person teams, plus 2 individuals in boardsailing will be representing the USA in Sydney under a year from now.

Both Mistral sailboard winners put on tremendous trails performances.  Women's winner Lenee Butler was 1st in all but one race.  Her 12 point total was well ahead of Cara Reid with 32 points.  The men's winner Mike Gebhardt also won in dominant fashion.  He finished first in 11 of 14 races and his 13 points were way ahead of the 28 accumulated by Randy Somnitz in 2nd.

The men's 470 team of Paul Foerester and Bob Merick also ended their trials with a healthy margin.  They won 8 of the 15 races and ended with 19 points.  14 points back in 2nd were Morgan Reeser and Kevin Burnham.

Two fleets had closer finishes.  The 49er skiff fleet saw the brother team of Jonathan and Charlie Mckee win 9 races and end up with 29 points.  Only 5 points back were Morgan Larson and Kevin Hall with 8 1sts, and 34 points.

The closest of all the trials was the women's 470 fleet.  Here J.J. Isler and Pease Glaser won 8 of 15 races to score a total of 21 points.  2nd place Courtenay Day and Alice Menard had 4 bullets and 25 points, only a 4 point deficit.

These 8 sailors will now have almost a year to get fully honed for a chance at an Olympic medal.

(C)update

Although there will be no racing until Wednesday New Zealand time, controversy an America's Cup tradition is alive and well.  While Fast 2000 and America One make repairs to their machines, the international jury and various syndicates are all on in the jury room.

Some of the controversy stems from 1/2 point penalties handed out to Team Dennis Conner and Nippon.  The Team Dennis Conner penalty comes at the behest of the International Jury.  In a pre start collision Stars and Stripes caused damage to America One.  Although America One did not protest this fact, the jury made a clear statement that Stars and Stripes did not do the maximum to prevent a collision and so was penalized.  Stars and Stripes Bill Trenkle said of the decision: ""We felt a little blindsided."

Nippon was penalized for hitting the Spanish boat.  The Spanish had to replace the stern scoop after this incident.  

Chief of the International Jury Bryan Willies drew this lesson: ""The lesson for [the teams] to learn is that if they're going to have massive collisions, and put boats out of commission, we'll take action."

A request by America true and Le Defi France to reopen the postponement of racing was declined.  Both America True and France plan boat modifications and the delay before ending Round Robin 1 cuts into the time they have to work with.  

With all issues now clear two more flights remain in round one.  Updated standings are below.  

Complete Round Robin 1 Standings
Reference Note:  Top 6 move onto semifinals.
Standings reflect half point penalties to Nippon and Team Dennis Conner. 
Ties for placings in standings were broken on a head to head basis.
Racing resumes Saturday 6 November with the first flight of Round Robin 2.

Transat Jacques Vabre

The fleet of 50 & 60 foot monohulls and 60 foot trimarans has emerged from the storm.  9 monohulls and 4 trimarans remain racing.  Many boats have retired and Groupe Andrew co-skipper and owner Paul Vatine has been lost at sea.  North west winds are pushing the boats at speed off the wind.  

Still leading the monohulls is Whirlpool-Europe 2.  Whirlpool had an 8 hour delay while epoxying a problem through hull fitting, but is back racing.  At last reports they were sailing  at 13 knots.  Still in 2nd is Somewhere moving at 15 knots.  New to 3rd place is Sobedo with 16 knots of speed on.  The just launched Sill Enterprises is 4th.  Sill Enterprises reports on repair and the maintenance now necessary: "The repair on the centreboard is holding, we just need to empty the water 3 to 4 times per day. A pleasure since we have found the bale…a good bale onboard a boat is the equivalent of a toothbrush, it's essential. "
  Now in 5th is Group 4 with a monohull fleet high of 17 knots. With a now repaired staysail, the Group 4 crew says, "We need to concentrate on speed now, the next few days may present us with a big opportunity to move up in the game." Next is Aquitaine/Kingfisher.  This boat has had major rig problems, but after many hours up the mast is back underway.  Gartmore/First Call continues to separate from the fleet still to the south.  Spirit of the Race leads Class II.

The mulithulls have Fujicolour 33 miles clear of Foncia. Loick Peyron reports from Fujicolour: "Fine night, calm sea, stars and moon. It would be perfect if we knew everyone could share this moment."  This great duel could be affected by a problem with Foncia.  Her starboard outrigger is troublesome.  The Bourgnon brothers feel a pit stop maybe necessary.

The fleet will now move fast and residual damage from the storm could still show up.  Sailing Daily will continue to cover this event.

Mini Transat

Also benefiting from good sailing conditions via a northwest wind the is the Mini Transat fleet. 

Leaders of the fleet at this point are on the North route.  Latitude of the leader Erwin Tabarly is 28 degrees 59 minutes.  First of the southern boats is Chris Sayer, his latitude is 26 degrees 18 minutes.  Race leader Sebastian Magnen is in 13th sailing at 25 degrees 32 minutes latitude.

The northwest breeze may give an advantage to the boats to the north, but that question remains an open one.