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| Day 5 at the America's Cup World Series - San Diego. Photo ©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget |
Whew! What an extraordinary time this is to be fan of sailing. This weekend alone, winners were crowned in the America's Cup World Series and the RC44 World Championships, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers kicked off, and racers in both the Clipper Round the World Race and the Volvo Ocean Race are neck and neck...
America's Cup World Series
The finals were held yesterday for the America’s Cup World Series event in San Diego, California. Oracle Racing Spithill won the Match Racing Championship on Saturday, and came from behind to win the Fleet Racing Championship on Sunday, becoming the first team to secure a double win at the AC World Series.
San Diego is the last event of the calendar year for the America’s Cup World Series. The teams will now have four months of winter training before the next AC World Series stop in Naples, Italy from April 7 to 15, 2012. Venice, Italy then follows from the 12 to 20 of May, 2012.
RC44 World Championships
The 2011 RC44 World Championships in Lanzarote, Spain, came down to the eleventh and final race of the event. Katusha made a late comeback, but Artemis Racing held on to be crowned 2011 RC44 World Champions.
More from the RC44 website: The RC44 World Championships also doubled up as the final event of the RC44 Championship Tour. With Team Aqua already securing the 2011 Championship Tour title, Artemis Racing needed to win in Lanzarote to secure second. So Puerto Calero ended up as a double celebration for the Swedish team, World Champions and second in the 2011 Championship Tour. Third place went to ORACLE Racing, even though the team were not in Lanzarote, their consistent season was enough to give them the final podium position.
Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race
This past August, ten sleek, stripped down 68-foot yachts - crewed by average Joes from all over the world - embarked on a full circumnavigation of the globe. The overall race is comprised of 15 individual races, and currently, the yachts are in Race 5 which runs from Geraldton, Western Australia to Tauranga, New Zealand. While team Gold Coast Australia is solidly in the lead, but as of this morning an intense battle is underway for the coveted podium positions for this particular leg, with just 32 miles separating the five boats vying for the second and third spots. You can read more about this race at the official Clipper website, and see the boats in action on the site's race viewer page.
Volvo Ocean Race
The current edition of sailing's equivalent to Mt. Everest (according to the Volvo Ocean Race's website) kicked off last month in Spain, and as of this morning, Spanish skipper Iker Martínez on Team Telefónica was leading the charge south with American Ken Read's PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG nipping at her heels 16 nautical just miles behind. U.S.A.! U.S.A!
ACR
On a lighter note, the 26th Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) set sail yesterday from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, according to theSailBlog.com. The event boasts more than 200 boats carrying over 1100 sailors bound for Saint Lucia - a 2,700 nautical mile journey expected to take as little as 9 to 11 days for the fastest vessels in the casual race.
For more on all of these events, check out the latest edition of World on Water - a 10 minute video of all the week's sailing action, here on the Daily Boater:
http://www.dailyboater.com/p/world-on-water.html
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