As a summer nor’easter reluctantly released its grip, sailing got underway on Narragansett Bay for the eighth annual C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta.  The race committee kept competitors ashore this morning while they waited for the tide to ebb and the northerly breeze to diminish and allow for a calmer sea state, and by early afternoon, conditions had improved enough to send the sailors out to the race course between Rose and Goat Islands, south of the Newport Pell Bridge.   

In the five-boat Sonar fleet, 2008 SKUD-18 Paralympic Gold Medalist Maureen McKinnon Tucker (Marblehead, Mass.) and Gerry Tiernan (Falmouth, Maine) crewed for John Porter (East Troy, Wisc.) to win all five races and the lead position in that fleet on five points.  Standing second overall with 10 points is the team of Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I./Cape Coral, Fla.), Brad Johnson (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Tom Brown (Castine, Maine) who placed second in all five races. 

All three have represented the U.S.A. in Paralympic Sailing, with Brown bringing home a bronze medal from the 2000 Games in the 2.4 Metre class.  Eric Roberts (Reno, Nevada), Jim Thweatt (Sacramento, Calif.) and Dennis Moran (Framingham, Mass.) are third overall with 17 points and hold a slim two-point lead over Ted King (Brentwood, N.H.) sailing with Dan Rugg (Centreville, Md.) and Dirk Johnson (Middletown, R.I.).   Charlie Croteau (Framingham, Mass.) and Jody Hill (Seabrook, Texas) with Kitty Mears (Brighton, Mass.) hold fifth place with 24 points.

Cohesion, confidence and continuity made the difference today for Britain's TeamOrigin who lead the Caja Mediterráneo Region of Murcia Trophy off Cartagena. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero won the GP42 Practice Race.

Buoyed by their team’s recent success, winning on their own home waters against the America’s Cup defenders, Britain’s TeamOrigin emerged with a third and a first place from the opening two races to lead the Caja Mediterráneo Region of Murcia Trophy regatta TP52 Series fleet by a single point ahead of the Argentinian flagged team on Matador.

Skipper Ben Ainslie pointed to their team's heightened levels of confidence, cohesion and the fact that for the first time of this Audi MedCup Circuit season they are sailing with exactly the same crew as they had at the previous TP52 regatta as key components of today’s strong opening.

(Photo - Nico Martinez Audi MedCup) 

Artemis win the Practice Race for the TP52 Series today in light winds off Cartagena.

Six boats and wings are ready to fly, on day two of the 2010 Little America's Cup, aka the International C-Class Catamaran Championship. Instead of racing as planned yesterday, internationally accomplished sailors from five countries played show and tell under the tent at New York Yacht Club. A collection of designers, America’s Cup evaluators and multihull pioneers weren’t too upset that a blustery weather system delayed day one.

One of the most prestigious titles in the world of ultra-high performance sailing, the Championship was last raced in 2007, at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto. There, Canadian challenger Fred Eaton and crew Magnus Clarke sailed Alpha to a 5-0 victory over the previously undefeated Steve Clark’s Cogito.

Of the four catamaran divisions, the C-Class is governed by a simple set of rules that reward outside-the-box thinking in aero and hydrodynamics to create the lightest, fastest course-racing boats on the planet.

“All wings under the C-Class rule are the same area of 300 square feet but it can be distributed in any fashion,” shares Steve Killing, the designer for Fred Eaton’s C-Class program. They are propelled not by traditional fabric sails, but by elegant wings, rigid but with twist capability.

With two weeks until the early registration deadline of September 1 for the 2010 Rolex Big Boat Series, organizers at St. Francis Yacht Club have announced the inclusion of a new IRC class for light displacement sport boats. In addition, the new official website http://www.rolexbigboatseries.com is now live for the regatta scheduled for September 16-19, and it includes links to the preliminary entry list, schedule of events and a link to the online apparel store.

“We have had many conversations with owners of light displacement sport boats who want to race in Rolex Big Boat Series, but know that the IRC rating won’t benefit them if they are grouped with some of the heavier boats,” said Norman Davant, St. Francis Yacht Club’s regatta chair. “We really want to include this class. They are fast and plane downwind, and it is super fun to see. With San Francisco’s reliable heavy-air conditions we could be in for a great show.”

There is a significant group of boats on the West Coast that fit this profile, such as the J/125, Farr 36, Santa Cruz 37, the new J/111, Schock 40 and several custom racing boats. “None of those boats rate competitive in IRC against the purpose-built IRC boats,” said Davant. “The best racing is always similar boats racing against similar boats regardless of the rating rule.”

(Photo -Trofeo Caja Mediterráneo Región de Murcia - Audi MedCup Circuit © Stefano Gattini_Studio Borlenghi/Audi MedCup)

The first two years that the Audi MedCup Circuit raced off Cartagena witnessed different extremes of Mediterranean sailing conditions.

The World Match Racing Tour regrets to announce that The Qingdao Match Cup has been cancelled after the local organising authorities were unable to commit to hosting the event.

Despite an agreement having been concluded in June 2010 the local authorities have been unable to meet the requirements outlined by WMRT.

WMRT remains committed to the expansion and development of the world championship series and continues its discussions with potential cities.