Editorial- Head winds for HSBC Coastal Classic

by Sail-World on 23 Oct 2008 Welcome to Sail-World.Com's NZ newsletter for 23 October 2008

A major event on the New Zealand sailing calendar the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic gets underway tomorrow morning with an entry of over 200 yachts.

At this juncture, the race is expected to be sailed in headwinds - lighter initially (15kts), but increasing at night and hitting over 25 knots late Friday evening and in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Quite what effect this will have on the fleet remains to be seen. The wind is expected to increase erratically and anyone seeking a more accurate picture of what is ahead is strongly advised to login to www.predictwind.com!PredictWind.com and get a free subscription and check out the trends predicted for this race.

A detailed weather briefing will be part of the race Briefing to be held tonight.

We have a number of features in this issue relating to the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic, and will be on the water providing coverage and images of the start tomorrow.

Please feel free to txt reports to 021 30 10 30, along with pxt, and emails to nzeditor@sail-world.com

Over 500 people attended the Memorial Service for outstanding designer, Des Townson, on Wednesday afternoon, at Bucklands Beach Yacht Club. It was, as Des wished, a celebration of his life, many achievements and the tremendous pleasure he gave to many.

One of the many great quotes from Des, was his own reflection on his 'working career' - 'I only really worked for two years of my life, the rest was fun!'

We hope to have more detailed coverage at a later time of Des Townson's design and photos of the complete lineage of his yachts.

The Volvo Ocean Race has entered an interesting phase as the eight competitors entered and then exited The Doldrums.

We have been tracking the various options during the past few days using Expedition and PredictWind. With each report the situation changes, but the trend is clear - that the Ian Walker skippered Green Dragon has made a big move in the race, sufficient to capture the lead and probably the leg.

Green Dragon was the first to be truly out of The Doldrums and should enjoy sailing into 12-15kts winds, according to the calculations we have done using www.iexpedition.com!Expedition and www.predictwind.com!PredictWind which is part of the software being used on board the Volvo competitors - except they only have access to weather feeds provided by race organizers.

According to the latest information an predictions we expect Green Dragon to have a 27 mile lead as she rounds the first gate of the race off the coast of Brazil. This has come back on earlier predictions, however these are changing significantly on every sked. Green Dragon is expected to round about midnight tonight (NZT)

Ian Walker and navigator, Ian Moore have proved the old Round the World maxim - 'west is best' meaning that by taking the most westerly course of the fleet they have picked up stronger winds and have been sailing in 7kts of breeze while their competitors were in less than 3kts.

US competitor PUMA Racing, while having dropped back for a period in the last couple of days, has slid over towards the west, and picked up the stronger winds, which as we predicted should have hauled her through to second place however on the latest prediction she is level-pegging with Ericsson 4.

Stay tuned to Sail-World.com for the latest updates, we are running our own prediction software based on Volvo supplied race positions, and over the past few days have been able to foretell developments in the race well ahead of official sources. We are updating these predictions every 24 hours on www.sail-world.com/usa with the next being posted in six hours.

On the America's Cup front, Alinghi have announced that they will compete in a new America's Cup based competition, along the lines of the Acts sailed in 2006, and some would say in response to the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series to be sailed in Auckland, NZ in February-March 2009.

So far, Alinghi would seem to have Desafio Espanol competing, with Luna Rossa rumored to be in the mix as well. Quite how this situation develops remains to be seen. One option is for the group of 23 teams entered and interested in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series to also sail in the 2nd Trofeo Desafío Español, the annual regatta of Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV).

However this event will be just two days long instead of three weeks for the LVPS, and will take place in three weeks time on 8-9 November. One wonders if the timing of the event has anything to do with a certain legal matter currently under study by the Court of Appeal in New York. Certainly the timing of the regatta makes it very difficult for other teams to compete at such short notice. Neither is there any offer of charter boats as are being used for the LVPS.

Overnight too, comes the announcement from Alinghi that they intend to get the America's Cup proper back on track - assuming that their current position is sustained on Appeal.

A serious point of concern in their announcement and continued position that legal issues must be resolved as a precursor to teams entry into a future America's Cup. Similarly with Alinghi’s involvement in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series being contingent on legal matters being dropped/resolved.

Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing, through their clubs RNZYS and GGYC, are specifically named in the announcement by Alinghi, as teams 'invited to abandon their respective legal proceedings and join the competition'.

What if they don't - are they by definition excluded??

The opening of the entry gate for the next America's Cup to 15th December 2008, means that the matters between the two 2007 Challengers and the Defender will most likely be unresolved, by that date, and this deadline is just more brinksmanship by the Defender.

The right to protest is a fundamental part of sailing. The fact that the ultimate protest or adjudication authority lies in the New York Court system is an unfortunate part of the America’s Cup, however it is the prescribed protest system for that event, nevertheless.

The fact that the Defender and Challenger may have set up their own Arbitration Panel is irrelevant, as this body is not (yet) enshrined in the Deed of Gift, which governs the America’s Cup. It is a very fraught legal process to exclude competitors from an event for non-compliance with an internal adjudication rule, because the right to a process of natural justice must always prevail. If this right can be shown to be usurped, in some way, then the right of appeal to external bodies is always acceptable, albeit that it may be uncomfortable for event managers.

The stance being adopted by Alinghi on these matters is both pedantic and contrary to the spirit of the sport. This has always been to set aside disputes, get on with the sailing, and to allow the dispute procedures to take their course in the normal way - without crews being excluded from competition for protesting race organisers – be it a Race Committee, Race Official or some other body recognised under the Rules.

It would be a very poor day indeed, when sailors looked down a start line in a yacht race, and then felt they had to withdraw because they had some legal/rules dispute with one or more of their of their competitors or had a protest pending against the organisers.

In fact such disputes have always been part of sailing. As has the ability to set these aside and get on with the game, while they are fully resolved. And, that this process is undertaken without rancour or condition.

Maybe it is time that Alinghi and SNG adopted this stance, too, and fell into step